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EVERYMAN'S GARDEN 
IN WARTIME 



EVERYMAN'S GARDEN 
IN WARTIME 

BY , K 

CHARLES Ai SELDEN 




NEW YORK 

DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 

1917 



.04- 



Copyright, 1913, by 

DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 

(Under title of "Everyman's Garden Every Week") 

Copyright, 1917, by 
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, Inc. 



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MAY 1 1 1917 

vOci,A480726 



TO 

MICHAELANGELO F:RIERI 

Whose years of loyal and cheerful cooperation, 

whose garden sense, inherited from many 

generations in the vineyards of 

his ancestors in Italy, made 

possible and profitable 

the farm and garden 

of an amateur in 

New Jersey. 



PREFACE FOR 1917 

Amateur gardening, which was formerly one of 
the gentler pastimes, like fishing, has become now a 
matter of stern duty and grim necessity. To feed 
the civilized world is the huge task that confronts 
the United States this year; and every American who 
cultivates a garden plot is "doing his bit" for his 
country and for civilization. They also are soldiers 
who fight with hoe and garden fork as well as those 
who carry rifles. 

Successful gardening requires more than good 
intentions. All the energy and industry a man can 
give to it will probably result in failure, unless his 
efforts are intelligently directed. Ground that is 
spaded up with high hopes will yield little beyond a 
lame back and sore hands unless the gardener knows 
how and when to plant and cultivate. Acres of land 
and bushels of seed will be wasted this year for the 
lack of one thing — knowledge. 

With the purpose of reducing waste and disap- 
pointment, and with the aim of helping the amateur 
gardener to bring forth fruits "some an hundred 



PREFACE 

fold, some sixty and some thirty" this book is written. 
Based on long experience of what has been done and 
can be done, it is a practical book, and the author's 
aim is always to convey his information in a clear, 
simple and practical manner. It is especially 
adapted for the help of the suburbanite, the man who 
with his own hands is cultivating a piece of land and 
who, for his own sake, and for the sake of all of us, 
wants to get the best results from his efforts. 



PREFACE 



HOW THE BOOK FITS THE GARDEN 

Save for the parts on all-the-season matters, such 
as preparation of the soil, fertilizing, protection 
against pests, and the pocketbook advantage of rais- 
ing your own vegetables, the chapters of this book 
are placed in chronological order, with reference to 
the many things to be done in a garden in the course 
of a year, Hsted, for the most part, under the weeks 
in which they best may be done. 

An amplified table of contents affords suggestions 
as to what should be attended to in any given period 
and is intended to be a guide in planning, not only 
for the moment, but for any future time in the life 
of the garden. This is supplemented by the sum- 
marized calendars and for quick reference to any 
particular fruit ^or vegetable or fertilizing formula, 
or to any specific piece of work, there is an index. 

With such slight rearrangement and editing as 



PREFACE 

were necessary for transfer from magazine to book 
the material is the same as it appeared through all 
the growing weeks of the year in The Country Gen- 
tleman. Putting it between covers is in response to 
requests from readers of that periodical; with the 
writer's acknowledgment to the Curtis Publishing 
Company of its courtesy in permitting him to com- 
ply with those requests, 

C. A. S. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 

Cold Weather Planning and Reading , . . 1 
Garden of the winter vision — Air castles built of the 
illustrated seed catalogues — Real value of trying to 
raise things that will match the pictures — Shape of 
patch and arrangement of varieties — Government 
is ready to help the possessor of the smallest gar- 
den. 

CHAPTER II 

Saving the Family Purse 12 

Some simple household arithmetic showing the ex- 
travagance of paying top prices for wilted vege- 
tables from store or cart when the fresh product 
can be had at the trivial cost of seed — Food that 
makes for health — An all-year supply — How to 
raise potatoes. 

CHAPTER III 

Garden Soils, Good and Bad 19 

Ground that needs barnyard manure and that which 
is better served by the easily handled chemical 
fertilizer — Detecting and remedying sourness of 
soil — ^What loam is. 

CHAPTER IV 

Tools That Are Essential 28 

A hoe is not a good hoe unless it just suits the gar- 
dener who uses it — High value of the human 
fingers in the war on weeds — Weeders with short 
handles — Many useless things. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER V 

Garden Eugenics . . = o . , o . . 38 

Plants must be well born and have decent growing 
conditions from the start — Drain the mud holes — 
Ditch construction — Insect and fungous enemies 
classified — Ways to fight them. 

CHAPTER VI 
Water Whenever Needed 53 

Gardens that are ruined needlessly because their 
owners depend upon rain alone — Simple and in- 
expensive methods of irrigation for small areas — 
The part that moisture plays in plant growth. 

CHAPTER VII 

Garden Mistakes op Various Sorts . . . . 6S' 

Every grower should make an honestly complete 
record of all the blunders he has been guilty of — 
A useful chart for doing better work in the next 
garden — Sample grouping of errors. 

CHAPTER VIII 

Taking Planting Cues from Nature ... 77 

Blossoming of the fruit trees is a surer sign for 
the beginning of garden work than the arbitrary 
say-so of the almanac — The number of days avail- 
able — Rules for all vegetables. 

CHAPTER IX 

April — The First Week 87 

Starting a new strawberry patch — Care of the old 
one — Save the winter's wood ashes for the potash 
— Planting in hills or matted rows — Handling of 
runners — Fertile and sterile plants. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER X 

April — The Second Week 95 

Things easy to raise but too often missing from the 
amateur garden because of fancied difficulties — 
Making the asparagus bed — Celery from the plant- 
ing of seed to blanching of stalks — Onion $ets. 

CHAPTER XI 

April — The Third Week 115 

The small fruit garden — Setting out blackberries, 
raspberries, currants and gooseberries — Selecting 
site and preparing the soil — Cultivation — Fertilizer 
best adapted to each variety. 

CHAPTER XII 

April — The Third Week, Continued . » .126 

Setting out fruit trees — Beware of the travelling 
agent — Go direct to the nurseryman — Advantages 
of the dwarf trees in the small garden — Fertilizers 
for the several varieties — Unusual fruits. 

CHAPTER XIII 

April — The Fourth Week 143 

Lettuce ^\^ll head up and have a heart if you get 
the right variety and handle it properly — Nitrate 
of soda for quick growth and a crisp plant — 
Cabbage and cauliflower. 

CHAPTER XIV 

May — The First Half . .151 

Sweet corn culture — Selection of seed — Much hoeing 
and then more hoeing are necessary — Old sod land 
makes the ideal soil — Rapid growth in hot weather 
— There is an ideal way for beans. 

xi 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XV 
May — The Second Half 161 

Methods for raising the perfect melon — The advan- 
tage of using glass boxes in the garden for getting 
an early crop— Manure at the bottoms of the hills 
— Cures for blight — Rules for cucumbers — The bor- 
der of parsley. 

CHAPTER XVI 
June — The First Half 171 

Tomatoes, eggplants and peppers — Three essentials 
of the complete garden that need genial conditions 
of growth and much care for their best develop- 
ment — Ancient history of the tomato. 

CHAPTER XVII 
June — The Second Half 180 

After the staples are all safely planted indulge in a 
garden novelty or two — How to raise peanuts and 
what they really are — Gourds that will grow any- 
where — Sweet potatoes. 

CHAPTER XVIII 
July — The First Week 189 

With the end of June comes the business of canning 
vegetables for the winter — Rules for the different 
varieties — Best time of day for picking the product 
that is to be kept in glass. 

CHAPTER XIX 
July — The Second Week 199 

The period for finishing touches, especially in the 
flower garden — Filling in of empty spaces — Lib- 
eral use of liquid manure for the purpose of bring- 
ing out the color of the blossoms — Hollyhocks. 

xii 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XX 

July — The Third Week 210 

Root crops and their midsummer treatment — The 
main potato crop and dangers that menace the 
vines — Preliminary fertilizing — Carrots, beets, tur- 
nips and rutabaga. 

CHAPTER XXI 

July — The Fourth Week 219 

Midsummer possibilities for new planting almost as 
enticing as those of April and May— More peas and 
lettuce — Kohl-rabi and corn — Reward for the man 
who raises endive. 

CHAPTER XXII 

August — The First Week 229 

The garden as a continuous institution and a policy 
of annual improvement of its soil — Pick out the 
poorest part of the patch for renovation and plant 
it now to clover or alfalfa. 

CHAPTER XXIII 

August — The Second Week 236 

Pickling, drying and preserving the late summer 
surplus of the garden — Do not use store chili sauce 
— Many things that can be done with tomatoes — 
A long list of grape products. 

CHAPTER XXIV 

August — The Third Week ...... 246 

Making a new lawn — Renovating the old one — Select 
grass seed that is suitable for the particular place 
in which it is to be sown — The important matter 
of contours and paths and shrubs. 

xiii 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XXV 

August — The Fourth Week 257 

Make selections of shrubs and vines for the Fall 
planting to improve permanently the general ap- 
pearance of the place — Things that are beautiful 
the year round — A sample grouping. 

CHAPTER XXVI 
September 266 

End of the "putting-up" season — Best time to pick 
fruit — Storage for the root crops — Different tem- 
peratures needed by different varieties of vege- 
tables but all must be kept dry. 

CHAPTER XXVH 
September — Continued 283 

Setting out grape vines — Compromise plan to get 
both fruit and foliage— Cuttings and layerings — 
Use of the vine for screening purposes — The sev- 
eral methods of grafting. 

CHAPTER XXVIII 
October and November 293 

Not a period for loafing in the flower garden — Put- 
ting the hardy bulbs in the ground — Setting out 
the herbaceous plants — Tender bulbs that must be 
stored for the winter — Division of roots. 

CHAPTER XXIX 
Indoor Work 304 

Propagation of plants by the amateur — Experiments 
with pollen — Trying for a new variety of carna- 
tion — Raising rhubarb in the cellar throughout the 
winter — Making a mushroom bed. 

CHAPTER XXX 
Suggestions for the Garden Calendar . . S2S 

xiv 



EVERYMAN'S GARDEN 
IN WARTIME 



CHAPTER I 

COIiD WEATHER PLANNING AND 
READING 

Too often the calendar for the planting of seed 
starts with April — March at the earliest — and 
closes with September, as if the world of the gar- 
dener began with a spring radish and ended with a 
winter turnip. This may be because the calendar- 
maker, who probably never plants anything, loses 
sight of the fact that to the true philosopher of 
the hoe there is no winter. What is called so, merely 
as a convenience in dividing time, begins, according 
to the almanac, on December twenty-first. But it 
really ends there, too, for at that very time the 
days begin to lengthen and there is nothing like 
knowing that today has a fraction of a minute more 
sunlight than yesterday to revive enthusiasm for 
planting and to stir into life the winter vision of the 
garden to be. 

1 



COLD WEATHER PLANNING 

That vision-garden is of real fniitfulness. The 
better and bigger its crop of plans and hopes the 
more fresh vegetables there will be on the dreamer^s 
table six months later. You raise the dreams in 
rows or broadcast, according to fancy, on the snow- 
covered, frost-filled patch that looks so barren to 
those outside the cult. 

So the calendar should say " plant now," mean- 
ing the first of February or, any other time after 
the winter solstice on December twenty-first — in 
northern latitudes it might be well to wait till just 
after Christmas — and then should follow the cul- 
tural directions for the beginner. 

An ideal location for the vision-garden is in front 
of an open fire in an out-of-town house, although 
suburban stove or radiator will do almost as well, 
and some wonderful crops have been grown in city 
flats and even in hall bedrooms equipped with oil 
heaters ready to form a protecting smudge, such 
as they use in orchards, to save the dreams from 
winter-killing when the janitor shuts off the heat. 
Having selected the site, build a small air-castle in 
one corner, shielded from northeast winds, for the 
storage of bulbs, watering pot, gardening tools and 

% 



COLD WEATHER PLANNING 

seed catalogues. If the gardener is short of build- 
ing materials for such a structure he may use the 
seed catalogues themselves. They make wonderful 
air-castles of regular skyscraper dimensions. May 
the poets who write these catalogues and the artists 
who illustrate them never grow less fanciful and col- 
orful! They show the tomato that everybody as- 
pires to raise and therefore give the benefit of an 
aspiration. They fill the picture pods with pictiire 
peas that Nature never knew. They produce straw- 
berries bigger and redder than those your grand- 
father remembers as growing in his grandfather's 
garden when he was a boy. 

So these catalogues serve a useful purpose by fur- 
nishing an ideal. It is easy to prove. Let one gar- 
dener struggle to raise a potato that will conform 
to the dimensions and shapeliness of the pictured 
vegetable, that will rival the mealiness of the de- 
scription. Now let his neighbour be contented to 
take as his model such a potato as he can buy 
at the grocery store. Which will get the better 
crop? 

Pencil and paper are indispensable tools for this 
February job of sowing dreams, because the garden 



COLD WEATHER PLANNING 

grows so fast that unless you keep strict account one 
thing will overrun another and neither will do so 
well. Begin by drawing the outer boundaries, mak- 
ing the plan oblong if you have the room; if not, 
square. It is better to have a circle or a triangle 
or any other shape known to the geometry-makers 
than not to have a garden at all. The long garden 
is simply the ideal sort because of the economy of 
time and strength in caring for it. It is easier to 
do the hoeing up and down long rows, especially if 
you use one of those handy little wheel hoes. 

For the same reason put plants of similar size and 
shape and those which require similar treatment in 
the same part of the garden. If you do not want 
to plant enough peas, for instance, to fill out one 
or more complete rows finish out the vacant place 
with bush beans, so that the two kinds of vegetables 
which are to be cultivated in the same way may 
receive attention at the same hoeing without un- 
necessary effort. That is a point one is apt to for- 
get while working in the vision-garden across which 
you can stride without getting up from the arm- 
chair. But minutes do count when the real fun 
and business begin, especially if you are commuting 



COLD WEATHER PLANNING 

and that 5:19 train is apt to be late and cheat you 
out of your weeding hour, or if your wife insists 
on your going to church Sunday morning. 

In running things together on your preliminary 
sheet of plans do not forget to leave space for the 
subsequent plantings of the same thing. A garden 
is only half a garden that does not provide for suc- 
cessive crops and a continuous feast all through the 
growing season. 

Eggplants and peppers naturally go together in 
a separate group not far from the tomatoes — three 
things which will not come on the stage until the 
rest of the garden is well under way. Beets, tur- 
nips, carrots and parsnips belong in the same sec- 
tion; the cabbage and cauliflower in another. Give 
the potatoes as much room as you can spare. Noth- 
ing gives the amateur such a boastful, professional- 
like feeling as to raise his own potatoes. Not that 
it is difficult, but they seem so much more like real 
staple food supply, so much more businesslike than 
radishes, for example. Of course the suburban gar- 
dener who actually raises enough potatoes to carry 
him through the winter becomes a political economist 
and is qualified to deliver lectures at the church men's 

5 



^COLD WEATHER PLANNING 

club on the high cost of Hving problem and how to 
prevent famines in China. 

Onions, for which you will put out sets without 
bothering with seed, deserve good room. If you do 
not love them now get the appetite. They are bet- 
ter for next winter's colds in the family heads than 
many grains of quinine. 

The corn, as even the amateur having his very 
first garden dream must know, grows high and so 
makes shade. It must be placed where its waving 
stalks w411 not cheat the other inhabitants of their 
fair share of light and air. The same thing is true 
of the pole-twining limas. 

As the proof of the garden is in the eating of the 
meals that come out of it there must be salad ma- 
terial in abundance. So make generous allowance 
for the lettuce bed — one that will last all summer 
by planting new ground and replanting on the 
old. Then draw a series of circles and mark them 
for the cucumber hills. To provide the dinner des- 
sert or the breakfast appetizer give the melon patch 
all the space you can on your mid-winter paper plan. 
Then add a few more square feet to that and, finally, 
leave a marginal strip for a strawberry bed. 

6 



COLD WEATHER PLANNING 

The amateur gardener reading his latest book on 
horticulture, and his classically ambitious daughter 
at the other side of the library table doing her after- 
dinner school work in Latin, may be reading prac- 
tically the same thing without either realising it. 

Somewhere in his guide book, printed for the com- 
ing season, the gardener will be warned not to try 
to work his ground before the March winds have 
dried out the mud left by the departing frost. He 
Avill read that wood ashes are excellent for the soil, 
that he must be generous with the manure pile, that 
he must put each thing in the place best adapted to 
it, that after harrowing or raking his ploughed or 
spaded ground it will help the soil a lot to smooth 
and pulverize the surface still further by dragging 
brush over it. 

On her side of the droplight the schoolgirl, with 
an occasional sigh and frequent fluttering references 
to the vocabulary in the back of the book, will man- 
age to dig the following translation out of her Virgil, 
written two thousand years before her father ever 
thought of having a garden : 

" In early spring, as soon as the dissolving snow 
melts on the white mountains and the earth crum- 

7 



COLD WEATHER PLANNING 

bles, unbound by the wind, even then let my plough 
be pressed down. But before our iron cuts an un- 
broken plain, first let us learn with care the winds 
and changing habits of the sky, the natural culture 
and disposition of the ground and what each plot 
will produce or refuse to bear. Here corn grows 
happiest, there the vines ; there flourish fruit trees 
best and herbs unbidden spring. 

" Be not ashamed to soak the arid soil with rich 
dung or freely to cast the smutty ashes on the ex- 
hausted fields. Very greatly does he help the fields 
who with harrows breaks the sluggish sods and drags 
over them the osier hurdles." 

And so on, through all the practical garden book 
of the present and the pastoral of 40 B. C, or 
thereabouts, will be found corresponding hints to 
the gardener, the chief difference being that the first 
is in prose and the other in blank verse. 

Virgil himself was, comparatively, a modern gar- 
den writer. They used to accuse him of stealing 
a lot of his agricultural lore from Hesiod, who had 
advised the Greeks how to manage their crops seven 
centuries or so before Virgil saw his first dandelion, 
or whatever the early spring flower happened to be 

8 



COLD WEATHER PLANNING 

in his part of the world. But when Hesiod gave his 
advice the world already had been following it for 
ages. 

That is one of the fascinating things revealed by 
books about having a garden — the continuity of 
the thing. You are doing what the ancients did 
in practically the same way, for the same purpose 
and getting the same results. Of what other form 
of human activity can this be said.? 

Of course we have more tools, some of them made 
for the profit of the dealer rather than for the benefit 
of the garden, and we have more books, covering a 
thousand more details — see the United States Agri- 
cultural Department's list of free literature — but 
on the fundamental principles there is little new. 
The most modern government writer in Washington 
is giving the gardeners of the country the same good 
advice on the main points that Virgil gave the Ro- 
mans and Hesiod the Greeks. 

However, after a little winter reading of the clas- 
sics, just for fun and to give an added touch of 
sentiment and tradition to the work with the hoe — 
to exalt the manure pile, so to speak — it is better 
to switch to the modem books to save time and to 

9 



COLD WEATHER PLANNING 

get specific instructions in details. It is remarkable 
how numerous and how good those books are — there 
are enough of them, almost, for every gardener to 
have his own pet volume, and not the same as his 
neighbour's. There are probably more pamphlets 
on radish culture, for example, than on the care 
of babies. Begin this book-learning part of your 
garden work by writing to the agricultural experi- 
ment station of your own state and to the Agri- 
cultural Department at Washington for their lists 
of free publications. This suggestion is as much 
for the man with a ten-foot garden of flowers or 
vegetables as for the farmer with many acres, for 
no patch of ground is too small for the Government 
to recognise as worthy of cultivation and no problem 
too simple for its aid. 

Provided with the lists, which include subjects all 
the way from pig management to violets, the ama- 
teur gardener can select the pamphlets that cover 
his particular needs and be sure of finding in them 
all the help he wants. 

If your neighbour in the country happens to be 
a professional gardener or a farmer who takes no 
stock in scientific methods — there are a few such 

10 



COLD WEATHER PLANNING 

left — be friendly and tell him about your advice 
from Washington, for it will amuse him. And you 
may be sure he will watch your garden as closely 
as he does his own, for, no matter how much he scofFs, 
he cannot help being curious. Produce a good crop 
of this or that, and he will come round sheepishly 
and ask if you mind lending him that book. 

Then 3^ou will have the satisfaction of being in 
the rapidly growing army of agricultural mission- 
aries, recruited each spring from the thousands of 
" city greenhorns " who move to the land but who 
must, because of their ignorance, preface actual ex- 
perience with reading what experts have written, 
and who thus learn a thing or two to show the men 
who have tilled the ground all their lives. 



11 



CHAPTER II 

SAVING THE FAMILY PURSE 

The figures that follow are only approximate. 
Every gardener or grocery-store patron probably 
could add something to or subtract something from 
them, but they are near enough to a fair average to 
demonstrate that Everyman's garden may materially 
lessen the family's cost of living. 

One quart of seed com is enough to plant one hun- 
dred hills. It costs about thirty-five cents. The 
one hundred hills, under normal conditions and with 
reasonable care, should produce six hundred ears — 
that is, fifty dozen. For good early com at the 
store the householder pays about twenty-two cents 
a dozen — for the fifty dozen eleven dollars, as 
against thirty-five cents for raising the same amount 
in Everyman's garden. Does such a garden pay? 
It would seem so. 

Take potatoes. A peck of seed, enough for four 
1£ 



SAVING THE FAMILY PURSE 

rows, each twenty-five feet long, costs from seventy- 
five cents to a dollar according to variety; eighty- 
five cents is a good average. This seed ought to 
yield six pecks, or a bushel and a half. New pota- 
toes sell at the best stores when they first come into 
market as high as a dollar and a half a bushel. The 
bushel and a half which Everyman might grow from 
his eighty-five cents' worth of seed would cost him 
two dollars and a quarter at his grocer's. The po- 
tato corroborates the corn as to the benefit to the 
household account to be derived from intelligent use 
of the soil back of the house. 

Why pay eight cents apiece for the first cucum- 
bers and five cents later on.^ A small packet of seed, 
costing not more than ten cents, will plant twenty 
hills, which will yield at least six dollars' worth of 
cucumbers, at store valuation. 

Thirty-five cents will buy a quart of seed for four 
twenty-five-foot rows of bush beans, enough to sup- 
ply the average family for three weeks. Beans sell 
at the store at ten cents a quart. One good mess 
from the grocer costs more than the seed for all four 
bean rows in the garden. 

The earliest peas, those that every man with a 
13 



SAVING THE FAMILY PURSE 

normal appetite and healthy enjoyment of food ex- 
pects to have on his table not later than the middle 
of June, or by July Fourth in New England, cost 
seventy-five cents a peck. For twenty cents he can 
get a pint of seed that will give him a fifty-foot strip 
of peas in his own garden. And nobody who has 
eaten peas from his own garden ever wants any more 
from the store. He may eat beans or potatoes or 
carrots from the store or the huckster's wagon ; to 
save himself from starvation he might nibble a little 
of the grocer's flavourless, three-day-old corn; but 
for the grocer's peas his own vines have spoiled him 
for all time. 

The price of melons or cantaloupes runs all the 
way from two for a quarter to six for a quarter, 
according to season. But for twenty cents Every- 
man can buy enough seed for twenty-five hills of 
melons, which should enable every member of his fam- 
ily to have a whole one for breakfast every morning 
during the season. 

This story of the garden, as told in dollars and 
cents, holds true for every vegetable on the list. 
And the cost of fertilizer, whether from the chemical 
factory or the barnyard, amounts to so little for the 

14 



SAVING THE FAMILY PURSE 

small garden that it hardly detracts from the bal- 
ance on the right side of the table expense account. 
It is much more than offset by increased nutriment 
values, by better health and digestion, and by greater 
satisfaction of all the members of the family — all 
of which come from eating absolutely fresh vegetables 
rather than the wilted sort from the store or cart. 

After allowing two dollars for one day of hired 
help on the preliminary spading, or five dollars for 
the services of a man and team with plough and har- 
row, there is no labour cost to Everyman's Garden 
because there should be no labour, in the burden- 
some sense of the word ; nothing but pleasure and the 
most wholesome sort of exercise. Instead of charg- 
ing anything for his own time and effort, the gar- 
dener might go so far the other way as to put his 
work down as profit — a saving of doctor's bills and 
athletic club dues. 

Of course the saving on the cost of living by 
means of a garden is not confined to the actual grow- 
ing season. There are canning and preserving pos- 
sibilities to be taken into consideration. From the 
summer surplus of the garden a large part — by far 
the most palatable and healthy part — of the food 

15 



SAVING THE FAMILY PURSE 

supply for the coming winter can be obtained in the 
shape of canned peas and beans, com and tomatoes, 
pickled cucumbers, and various other things that 
every housewife knows about. The canned products 
of home raising and preserving are fully as preferable 
to the store supplies in tin as are the fresh veg- 
etables superior to the stock of the huckster's cart, 
and the margin of nutriment and safety to health 
is much greater. 

Then, too, there are the regular winter vegetables 
— potatoes, carrots, turnips, onions, parsnips, cel- 
ery and all the rest that are to be stored. Nothing 
makes Everyman in his garden feel quite so impor- 
tant, so much a man of substance in the community, 
as to produce, for the first time, his winter supply 
of these vegetables. 

To get all that food and satisfaction it is worth 
while to take pains and do the thing in the best way, 
So here are some suggestions for that household 
staple, the potato. In the first place do not plant 
potatoes where they were last year. As a matter 
of fact the longer interval between two plantings 
on the same piece of ground, the better, for potatoes 
are subject to several diseases, notably scab, the 

16 



SAVING THE FAMILY PURSE 

germs of which remain alive in the soil from one sea- 
son to the next and attack the following crop. 
These scab germs may be on the seed potatoes them- 
selves, so it is well, before cutting, to soak them for 
two hours in a solution of a gill — four ounces — of 
formaldehyde in seven quarts of water or to put 
them in an air-tight outbuilding or a room in the 
cellar and burn there a formaldehyde candle, which 
may be bought for a quarter or less at the drug store. 

The next question is cutting. Commercial grow- 
ers, as a rule, leave two eyes on each seed piece to 
be put in the ground. For the amateur a sensible 
thing is to cut each in halves. 

As potatoes grow all the way from coast to coast 
and from Alaska to Mexico no amateur gardener in 
the United States need fear to try a crop. How- 
ever the ideal soil is a sandy loam and it must be 
well drained, for too much moisture will rot the 
seed. If there is no such soil available its advan- 
tages may be obtained, in part at least, by drain- 
age and by the ploughing under of a lot of barnyard 
manure, not only to enrich the soil but to loosen it. 

Deep tillage is necessary in preparation of the 
ground, and after the ground has been thoroughly 

17 



SAVING THE FAMILY PURSE 

ploughed the seed pieces should be covered by four 
inches of earth. The potato cannot thrive if it is 
skimped in its supply of nitrogen, phosphoric acid 
and potash. Barnyard manure will supply these 
in sufficient quantity and right proportions, but if 
the soil is naturally of the right texture or has been 
heavily manured for a season or two before, it is bet- 
ter to use a chemical fertilizer. No fertilizer of any 
sort should come in direct contact with the seed. 

If ground space is ample plant in hills two feet 
apart each way — two feet and a half is better for 
cultivation. Drop three seed pieces in each hill. If 
space is limited plant in rows, or drills, two feet 
apart and drop two seed pieces every foot in each 
row. 



18 



CHAPTER III 



GARDEN SOILS, GOOD AND BAD 

Loam is a mixture of sand or clay with many years' 
accumulation of decomposed vegetable matter, such 
as leaves, plant stems, rotted sod and weeds, and 
decayed fragments of wood. The base of this blend 
may be clay or sand or both, but it is not loam unless 
the rotted vegetable substance, technically known as 
organic matter or humus, is there in sufficient quan- 
tity and transforms it into a life-giving blend for 
more plants, which in their turn will die and add 
their stems and leaves, thereby increasing the loami- 
ness. 

No apology is offered for this definition of the 
very stuff of which the garden is made. To some it 
may seem as obvious and as unnecessary as to define 
water as a liquid, but, to nine amateur gardeners 
out of ten, soil terms, used so glibly by the experts, 
are a puzzle. Loam is one of them. Beginners 

19 



GARDEN SOILS 

read of sour soil and sweet soil, light soil and heavy 
soil, loam, sandy loam and clayey loam, and won- 
der what it all means. Fortunately they can go 
ahead and have very good gardens without solving 
the puzzle, but knowing why, in the long run, may 
become as useful as knowing how. At any rate, it 
adds one hundred per cent to the pleasure, if not 
quite as much as that to the profit, of having the 
garden. 

In this respect you may look at your garden in 
several different figurative ways in addition to con- 
sidering it as so many square feet of dirt out of which 
you can take flowers and vegetables every year for 
some reason or other that you know nothing about. 
In one sense it is a bank where you have principal 
on deposit in the shape of soil substance and fertil- 
ity. The vegetable crop is the annual interest and 
that may be decreased from year to year to the van- 
ishing point or greatly increased in quantity and 
quality according to whether you impair the princi- 
pal or add to it. 

Again, the garden is a chemical laboratory in 
which many wizard-like performances are always go- 
ing on to produce the desired plant life. With the 

W 



GARDEN SOILS 

laboratory, as with the bank, the gardener must co- 
operate. He must know what chemicals are lack- 
ing and how and when, in what quantities and in 
what shape to supply them. We hear a great deal 
about scientific farming, comparatively little about 
scientific gardening. But a very little science will 
do as much in proportion for a back lot, otherwise 
hopeless for a garden, as it will for one of the much- 
talked-of abandoned farms. 

So to begin with the soil — the ideal sort for the 
garden is the light and sweet sandy loam. The prim- 
itive way, assuming now the case of the man who 
has just moved from city to suburbs, is to plant the 
garden on the spot available, without knowing any- 
thing of its fertility or texture, past uses or abuses, 
and trust to luck and the hoe. 

But in spite of constant and faithful work with 
that hoe and all the other garden tools, the vegetable 
interest returns on the principal invested in work 
and seed and manure may be scant as to quality and 
quantity. If the labour has not been skimped it may 
be taken for granted there is something wrong with 
the soil. If that fact is ascertained at the begin- 
ning of the season instead of at the end, as it may 

21 



GARDEN SOILS 

be, the defect can be remedied in advance and the 
very first season's attempt of the amateur made a 
success instead of a failure. 

Too much acidity is one of the chief causes of fail- 
ure on ground long neglected or misused — in other 
words sour soil. Whether the patch selected for 
the garden is sour or sweet may be learned absolutely 
by anybody not colour-blind at the cost of five cents 
in money and five minutes in time. The trick can 
be done winter or summer. 

Invest a nickel at any drug store in half a dozen 
strips of blue litmus paper. Place one of them in 
a handful of soil where it is damp. If it turns red 
there is too much acid there; the soil is sour. Try 
the same experiment in various other parts of the 
garden with the other strips of paper, so as to get 
a line on the whole patch. If it shows enough acid 
to turn the paper the trouble can be remedied at 
small expense by sprinkling on lime, say, a pound 
for every twenty square feet, and raking it in. That 
is a liberal allowance ; the same amount is put on to 
prepare land in the East for alfalfa, and no other 
crop is so absolutely dependent on sweetness of soil 
as alfalfa. 



GARDEN SOILS 

To demonstrate to yourself what this lime will do 
for the whole garden dip one of the strips of litmus 
paper into water with lime in it and the telltale red 
spot showing sourness will turn blue again. If it is 
desired to make this soil test in the winter, to save 
time or satisfy any curiosity that may have been 
aroused by this hint, bring a lump of the frozen soil 
into the kitchen and make mud of it with some warm 
water. 

The next question — Is the soil loamy enough ? 
If it has been heavily fertilized for several years with 
barnyard manure it probably is, for the manure is 
full of straw and that makes humus. If the garden 
is a new one, made on land recently a lawn, the 
ploughed-under, rotting sod has furnished the humus. 
The same is true of land that has received a deposit, 
year after year, of dead weeds and leaves. Perhaps 
it is an old garden which has been manured in pre- 
vious seasons and has taken back to itself the stems 
and foliage of many plants after the harvests. 

In any of these cases it is better to use chemical 
fertilizers. They do not bring weed seeds into the 
garden, as will almost any manure from barnyards 
in the country where horses have a chance to supple- 



GARDEN SOILS 

ment their grain rations in the barn with grazing 
in the pasture. Furthermore the commercial fer- 
tilizers contain, in the most quickly available form, 
the essential plant foods that the land is most likely 
to lack. They are easier to have delivered and to 
handle. A man may lug home by hand almost as 
much real plant food in a bundle as he would get in 
a load of manure. 

There are special manufactured mixtures for dif- 
ferent plants, but a very excellent brand for general 
garden purposes, particularly effective for fruit, is 
in this proportion: ten pounds of phosphate, five 
pounds of muriate of potash, and four of pure ground 
bone. That total of nineteen pounds, doubled, would 
be good for one year's fertilizing of a garden con- 
taining 1500 square feet, and ought not to cost more 
than three cents a pound. It should be broadcasted 
after the ploughing or spading has been done and then 
thoroughly raked or harrowed in. 

Nitrate is not mentioned in this formula partly 
because the use of that chemical, which furnishes the 
very essential nitrogen, is a risky thing for the ama- 
teur. It is apt to give him a too luxuriant growth 
of leaf and stem of a beautiful, rich green, and too 

24 



GARDEN SOILS 

little fruit or vegetable. Nitrate also is much more 
expensive than potash and phosphate and there are 
two better ways of getting nitrogen into' the soil 
than by using the commercial chemical. 

One is to scatter hen manure on the land through 
the winter and let it soak in witji the spring rain. 
Make sure it has worked well into the soil before 
planting, because seed in actual contact with this 
strong manure will die. Be liberal with the hen 
manure in the place where the beets are going to be 
planted, for they thrive best on lots of nitrogen just 
as all fruits, small or tree, thrive on potash. 

The other natural, inexpensive way to get nitro- 
gen is to plant clover, preferably crimson clover, in 
such part of the garden as you have taken the har- 
vest from late in August. It will start its growth 
in the late summer, develop some in early fall, live 
through the winter and renew growth early in the 
spring. Then it should be ploughed under. It will 
carry with it quantities of nitrogen which it has ab- 
sorbed from the air, besides making a valuable addi- 
tion to the humus of the soil. Dig it under before 
it blossoms, otherwise its continued growth will rob 
the vegetable plants of too much moisture. Peas 

25 



GARDEN SOILS 

and beans have this same power to take nitrogen 
from the air and deposit it in the soil. 

If the stems of plants are short and thin and 
wabbly, if the foliage is scant and turns yellow be- 
fore it should, that is a sure sign more nitrogen is 
needed. 

If the plant itself thrives, but fails to produce its 
fruit, that is a sure sign the soil needs potash and 
phosphate. 

Fortunately for both farmers and gardeners 
nearly every state in the Union, through its agri- 
cultural experiment station, now undertakes to pro- 
tect the public against worthless fertilizers by analyz- 
ing samples of all the commercial mixtures put on 
the market by seedsmen and the manufacturers. Re- 
ports of these examinations are published, giving 
names of the makers, the trade names of their prod- 
ucts, and an exact statement of what each contains. 
These reports may be had for the asking. 

This same experiment station of your state will 
examine a sample of your soil and, if possible, tell 
you what it needs. It is not so simple for the ama- 
teur who knows nothing of chemistry to tell about 
the potash, and so on, as it is for him to test for 

^6 



GARDEN SOILS 

acidity. He must apply to the state's experts or 
wait for evidence furnished by the plants. 

For gardens not rich in humus barnyard manure 
is the thing. Such gardens lack loam and their too 
sandy appearance will indicate that fact even to the 
amateur ; or perhaps they have been treated too long 
without addition of humus. 

Simply adding more chemicals to these soils will 
not solve the problem, because their texture is such 
that food is not made available for the plants even 
if it is in the ground in abundance. The ploughing 
under of the manure will break this ground up, make 
it loose — or friable, as the experts say — so it 
warms up more quickly in the spring and stays warm. 
Most important of all, it enables the soil to retain 
moisture because the more separate particles there 
are the more water there will be available to the 
plants. 



27 



CHAPTER IV 

T O O I. S THAT ARE ESSENTIAL 

As displayed in the store window, leaning up against 
the big prize pumpkin, or as pictured in the garden- 
tool catalogue, a hoe is only a hoe; but in actual 
operation it is a good hoe or a poor one, according 
to its suitability for the particular gardener who is 
using it and quite independent of the quality of its 
make or materials. This is equally true of the rake, 
the spade and all the other implements needed for 
working in the soil. 

So. then, let the gardener choose his hoe with as 
much care as a man would select his golf sticks or his 
baseball bat, billiard cue or tennis racquet. Don't 
order it by mail. Don't, after a long session with 
the dealer on the matter of seed, hurry away with- 
out a visit to the implement department, leaving it 
to the storekeeper to pick out any hoe he may have 
to add to your order. 

28 



TOOLS ESSENTIAL 

Examine the tools yourself. Heft the hoe, balance 
it, try it on an imaginary row of vegetables, con- 
sider the length and the weight of it, the diameter 
of the handle, the width of the blade. And if it 
doesn't fit you, if it doesn't hang just right, if the 
feel of it doesn't make you want to get right to 
work in the garden, it is not the hoe you ought to 
have. Try another and as many more as necessary 
till you find the hoe that was made for you. 

This matter of selecting the tools is of real im- 
portance. It makes a big diflPerence later on in the 
ease and pleasure with which the work is done. It 
means the difference between getting a backache or 
the best and most healthful development of the mus- 
cles of the back. If the hoe is right at the outset 
it becomes an object of genuine regard. The true 
gardener is an artist, and the tools of his art be- 
come something more to him than the mere imple- 
ments of wood and metal. 

For a good hoe in its second or third season, after 
the uncomfortable newness has been worn off the 
handle, after the blade has had its too square comers 
rounded a bit and its surface scoured bright by much 
contact with the soil, the gardener will have the same 

29 



TOOLS ESSENTIAL 

fondness that a smoker has for his favourite briar 
after it is seasoned. That feehng is out of the ques- 
tion if the thing is awkward and unwieldy at the 
start. Therefore put down the matter of buying 
the tools, all of them, as something that requires 
thought and real discrimination. 

Don't buy too many. There are novelties put on 
the market every year that just cumber the garden 
patch, add much to the expense and nothing to the 
ease or thoroughness of cultivation. A spading 
fork, a rake and a hoe are the three prime essentials. 
A castaway on a desert island with those three things 
only could run a very creditable garden ; but the list 
may be lengthened to great advantage to include a 
spring tooth weeder, a spade, a wheelbarrow, a reel 
and line, a trowel, a dibber, a hand pump for in- 
secticide spraying and a bellows for dusting 
plants. 

In every such list, whether long or short, there 
should be mentioned, very near the top, the gar- 
dener's ten fingers. For the perfect, weedless gar- 
den the human hand is an indispensable tool. No 
manufactured implement can take its place. After 
the most thorough hoeing and raking and the closest 



TOOLS ESSENTIAL 

possible work with the weeder, there are those hid- 
den spears of grass and first leaflets of the oncoming 
weed close against the stem of the flower or vegetable 
plant, ready to choke it and cheat it of its full share 
of soil nourishment, if left till next hoeing time. 
It is in getting rid of these little things that the best 
gardening is done, and must be done, with the fingers. 
Furthermore there is nothing so effective as the hand 
in pulverizing the soil about any particular pet plant 
which the grower wants to bring to perfection just 
as an example of what can be done. 

In the minimum list of essentials the spading fork 
is mentioned rather than the spade, because nobody 
but the amateur with nobody to advise him ever 
spades with a spade except when the job must be 
combined with the work of cutting off the tag ends 
of a lot of old roots or slicing through sod. 

The spading fork, with its four broad tines, is 
better for many reasons. It goes into the ground 
much more easily, so more ground can be turned with 
it for the same amount of energy and muscle power 
than with a spade. This saving of strength is of 
real importance to the man whose gardening must 
be done in the odd hours and who is not used to dig- 

31 



TOOLS ESSENTIAL 

ging. The tines of the fork, instead of compacting 
the soil and causing it to cake, as the solid spade 
does, serve to loosen and pulverize it with every fork- 
ful that is turned over. 

For the symmetry of a garden the reel and line 
are needed. Trying to hoe a straight drill for seeds 
by guesswork and the eye is unsatisfactory work. 
It can't be done. And a garden of crooked rows is 
not only a thing that you don't care to have your 
friends see but something that cannot be cultivated 
with economy of time and effort. So get the reel 
and line and stake and have a true, geometrical guide 
for every row and every section of the garden. Of 
course an ordinary string will do, but not so well. 
It will snarl and, being of no account, will be left 
round to clutter the place or else lost before it is 
time to use it again. The reel should have a long 
metal handle that can be thrust into the ground and 
held firm while the line is unwound and carried to the 
other end of the row. 

No garden patch is too small to have a wheelbar- 
row. It saves thousands of steps in the course of 
a season, from the time it is used for carting manure 
about in the spring to the harvest season when the 

32 



TOOLS ESSENTIAL 

crop IS taken to the kitchen door. It is handy in 
the work of transplanting. It is good for the re- 
moval of rubbish. It will hold the watering pot or 
the hose reel and all the tools, thus reducing the 
evening job of putting things away to one trip from 
garden to shed. 

There are all sorts of hoes. If you are to have 
only one, by all means get the pointed, heart-shaped 
one. It will do the ordinary work of surface till- 
age and cutting the weeds almost as quickly as the 
square hoe; besides that, it will make a drill or fur- 
row for seeds of just the right depth and angle of 
opening by simply drawing it down the line of plant- 
ing. Also, its pointed blade enables you to work 
much closer to the roots of the plants without bruis- 
ing the leaves and stems. And, still another argu- 
ment, it is lighter and handier to use and cuts into 
the soil much more easily, especially if the earth is 
hard or stony. 

The push hoe, or scuffle hoe as the English gar- 
deners call it, is also a useful but not indispensable 
thing to have round the garden. It looks something 
like an old-fashioned hand mincemeat chopper on a 
long handle and is pushed along on the surface or 

S3 



TOOLS ESSENTIAL 

just under it to cut off small weeds between the rows. 
It is of no use for heavy weeding or on ground not 
well cultivated. 

Its chief advantage is that in the work of weeding 
the occasional use of the scuffle hoe is rather restful 
because pushing, substituted for pulling, brings into 
play a different set of muscles. That may seem a 
very trivial reason to a man sitting in a comfort- 
able chair several weeks before outdoor work can be- 
gin; but the cumulative saving of strength in a 
thousand little ways means a great deal. It helps 
conserve the gardener's enthusiasm of the early spring 
all through the summer and to make it proof against 
the discouragements of poor crops and drought and 
pests. 

The rake is as useful as the hoe or the fork, but 
it serves a different purpose. It is to the garden 
what the harrow is to the field and should follow the 
fork to smooth the surface and pulverize the soil. 
It should be used for the same reason after each 
hoeing. In fact it cannot be used too often, because 
the finer the soil the more moisture it retains beneath 
the surface where the roots can get it in a dry time. 
And nothing adds more to the good appearance of 



TOOLS ESSENTIAL 

a garden than a level, well raked, finely lined, weed- 
less, grassless surface. 

For the very necessary pulverizing an old board 
or a bunch of dead tree branches or brush might well 
be added to the list of tools. Weight the board 
with a stone and drag it over the surface immediately 
after spading to break up all the clumps and clods. 
Follow that up with the brush to make the earth 
still finer; then use the rake. 

As already said of the hoe, the rake must be se- 
lected with reference to Its weight and balance and 
length of handle to suit the man or woman who 
is to use it. But it is well to get a wide one, at 
least as wide as the distance apart between the rows 
of the most closely planted vegetables. That means 
that one trip down the line covers the whole inter- 
vening space. 

The weeder should have a short handle, one with 
which you get right down on your knees to put the 
finishing touches on the cultivation. There are many 
shapes and sizes of these hand weeders, but any one 
with three or four spring prongs will do the work. 
After you have used for one season the one you hap- 
pen to select, you will talk and boast about it as 

35 



TOOLS ESSENTIAL 

the best thing of the sort ever invented. In that 
respect weeders are like automobiles or typewriters 
or babies. 

For transplanting, particularly in the flower gar- 
den and for work with bulbs, the trowel and dibber 
are on the list of things one surely should have. Of 
course everybody knows what a trowel is and what to 
do with it. The dibber or dibble — either word is 
right — is simply a sharp-pointed, round tool of 
wood or metal, used for making the right size and 
shape of hole in the ground in which to drop a bulb 
or place the root of a plant that is being trans- 
planted. Such a hole can be made with the trowel 
but not so well or so quickly. 

As the fighting of insects and fungous pests 
must be done in every garden that is to amount to 
anything, the need of the spray pump and the dust- 
bellows is self-evident. There is no other method 
of getting the various insecticides and fungicides on 
the plants evenly and effectively, and unless the 
spraying or dusting is done so thoroughly that every 
part is covered, it is merely a waste of time and ma- 
terial wasted. A small fraction of a square inch 
left unsprayed will afford ample breeding space for 

36 



TOOLS ESSENTIAL 

enough of the particular thing you are fighting to 
ruin the plant you think you are saving. 

No doubt there are other tools occasionally worth 
having for special conditions, but for Everyman's 
Garden the list here given is sufficient. If, after 
they and the seeds have been purchased, there is any- 
thing left of the family appropriation for the gar- 
den it may much better be spent on an extra bag 
of commercial fertilizer or an addition to the ma- 
nure pile than on tool frills. 



37 



CHAPTER V 



GARDEN EUGENICS 



Prevention is as much more than cure in the gar- 
den as anywhere else. For nearly all the pests and 
diseases that torment plants there are now cures or 
approved methods of control, but nothing is quite 
so satisfactory as giving the garden the best possible 
start, thereby assuring such strength and health of 
plant growth that the weeds will have little chance, 
and the need of poisonous sprays and powders for 
the bugs and fungi will be reduced to a minimum. 
There is no question that weeds will outgrow plants 
on a neglected plat, but by a friendly dispensation 
of Nature the reverse is true where the tillage is 
good. 

In the beginning there must be what might be 
called the eugenics of the garden — the seeing to it 
that flower and vegetable plants are well bom from 
good seed in a perfect seedbed. With reasonable care 

38 



GARDEN EUGENICS 

thereafter the probabiHties of a full harvest are ex- 
cellent. 

Watch the patch selected for the garden through 
the season of spring rains. If the water stands in 
pools that is all the evidence needed that there should 
be provided some form of artificial drainage. The 
suggestion of drainage frightens the average ama- 
teur because he knows nothing about it. In a vague 
sort of way he thinks of it as something that requires 
the skill of a civil engineer and the expenditure of 
much money — at any rate as something entirely be- 
yond him. As a matter of fact the thing is very 
simple. In ordinary cases any man who knows 
enough to spade his own garden can drain it, and it 
need cost nothing but the work he puts into the job. 

Dig a hole where the water collects in puddles. 
Go down three or four feet, getting out some of the 
hard clay soil that causes the water to stand on the 
surface, fill in with loose stones or old brush and then 
restore the surface of the garden by putting back the 
top soil. That is a drain in its simplest form. It 
is the same as punching a hole in the bottom of a 
tin dish. The water simply runs out. 

If there are many wet spots in the garden it is 



GARDEN EUGENICS 

better to dig a series of ditches, eight or ten feet 
apart and parallel to each other. Have them extend 
beyond the line of the garden on its lowest side and 
have their outer ends a trifle lower than where they 
start so the water will find a natural flow away from 
where it is not wanted. Fill in the ditches with a 
foot or a foot and a half of loose stones or brush, or 
put in porous tiles, and then throw back the top soil. 
That will drain that garden. 

Even these simple devices are not necessary on 
sandy soil or where there is sufficient slope to take 
the water off^ by gravity. A little experimental dig- 
ging here and there to learn what the subsoil is like 
and a close watch of the surface after rains will tell 
each gardener what his own needs are in this respect. 
If he discovers that drainage is necessary he mustn't 
neglect the matter or take a chance on having a dry 
summer. A dry summer for a poorly drained gar- 
den means soil that is baked and caked and cracked, 
that will produce nothing worth picking. A wet 
summer for that same patch means drowned seeds, 
mud, and plants rotted before they can produce any- 
thing. 

With the underground work disposed of, the next 
40 



GARDEN EUGENICS 

step is the making of the seedbed — the all-important 
matter of tillage. Possibly there is a farmer near- 
by or a truck gardener with an hour or two to spare 
who will plough and harrow the patch. So much the 
better. That will save the spading which is the only 
real backache-producing work in the whole process 
of gardening from one end of the season to the other. 
It will also assure a deeper and more unifonn turning 
over of the soil. 

If this outside labour is available have the neigh- 
bour plough, then go over the ground with a disc har- 
row at right angles to the furrows and finish off with 
a spike or smoothing harrow. Don't ask the truck 
gardener to do more than that, for if you do he will 
be impatient and think you are a garden lunatic. 
But you can supplement his work to great advan- 
tage and make the surface soil still smoother and 
finer by dragging over it a bunch of brush and even- 
ing it off and, as the final touch, by drawing a board 
over it. 

All this can be accomplished even if there is no 
man with a plough in the neighbourhood. The gar- 
dener's spade and rake and hoe are substituted for 
the horse-drawn tools of the professional and should 

41 



GARDEN EUGENICS 

• 

be followed in just the same Avay by the brush and 
the board. 

The chief purpose of this preliminary care and 
thoroughness is to get the ideal texture of tli£ soil. 
The deeper the tillage, the more room for the expan- 
sion of the root system which must support the plant 
and give it strength to bear fruit later on. And the 
finer thte soil is pulverized, the mt)re moisture it will 
hold. 

The beneficial moisture we are talking about now 
is sometimes called film moisture. It forms a film- 
like casing about each particle of the soil. Hence 
the necessity of having many particles, which can be 
obtained only by thorough fining. This water film 
dissolves the several chemical plant foods there are 
in the soil and gives the roots a chance to absorb 
them into the plant system. 

Texture of the ground improves year after year 
with repeated cultivation if care is taken to renew 
the humus or decayed vegetable matter in the soil by 
spading under barnyard manure, which not only fer- 
tilizes but prevents the earth from becoming too com- 
pact. 

Next in the sequence after drainage and prelimi- 



GARDEN EUGENICS" 

nary tillage or preparation of the seedbed come the 
planting of the seed and the cultivation and protec- 
tion of the plants up to harvest time. There is not 
a day, from one end of the season to the other, ex- 
cept very wet ones, when a little raking and hoeing 
is not beneficial. Don't work the soil during or im- 
mediately after a heavy rain, because it will dry in 
lumps and hurt the garden. But the sooner a little 
cultivation is given after a light shower the better, 
for the stirring of the soil locks within it some of the 
new moisture that would otherwise escape by evapora- 
tion from the surface. In long-continued periods 
of dryness there must be daily cultivation. This is 
dry farming on a small scale. Dry farming, about 
which so much has been written in America recently, 
is simply the trick of making one drop of water last 
as long as a bucketful, by constant cultivation. 

Hoeing and raking are not primarily for the ex- 
termination of weeds, but to conserve moisture. In 
a well-kept garden the weeds are so few and so small 
that the removal of them is merely incidental to the 
cultivation for other purposes. 

So much for prevention of garden troubles by a 
right start and proper care thereafter; but sickness 

43 



GARDEN EUGENICS 

will creep into the most sanitary households and some 
pests will come to the best-regulated gardens. 

This matter of garden hygiene is a big subj ect — 
so big, in fact, that if the amateurs should happen 
to read a full list of plant diseases and insects before 
he had his first enthusiasm aroused by his seed cata- 
logue he might never try to have a garden. For- 
tunately the enthusiasm comes first and Everyman 
learns little by little that there are obstacles to be 
overcome. A real garden disaster that destroys all 
a man's work is as rare as a plague of cholera in a 
civilized country. It is only here and there that a 
crop fails entirely or does not come up to reasonable 
expectations in quality or quantity, and by that 
time Everyman has learned enough of gardening to 
meet these troubles philosophically and intelligently. 

At the outset he may read the discouraging fact 
that the entomologists and plant pathologists have 
discovered and classified no less than three hundred 
different things that interfere with the growth of 
sweet corn, but he will go on year after year having 
reasonable success with his corn and never know any 
diseases in it but smut, and no enemy except the worm 
that begins at the top of the ear bj^ the silk and eats 



GARDEN EUGENICS 

its way dowTi through the kernels, leaving an un- 
sightly spiral trail. Neither of these things is a 
sufficient excuse for not planting corn next year. 
They are just an incentive to find out what the mat- 
ter is. So, in one way or another, through his corn 
or his melons or his peas, the amateur learns that 
there is more to gardening than digging, planting 
and gathering the product. He wakes up to the fact 
that the spray pump is as important a tool as the 
rake. Then he begins to be a real gardener. He 
has his garden medicine cabinet and knows something 
of symptoms and general principles of plant health. 

One sanitary thing to do, for example, is to lime 
the soil before planting. A pound of lime worked 
into the surface soil of every twenty square feet of 
garden is as clean and healthful a thing for plants 
as a coat of lime on the inside of the poultry house 
is for hens. Avoid diseases also by rotation of crops 
— that is, by not planting the same thing in the 
same place two seasons in succession. This applies 
particularly to potatoes and other root crops. Iry 
not to bring trouble by using germ-laden manure or 
disease-tainted seed. 

Pests may be classified. There are the fungous 
45 



GARDEN EUGENICS 

diseases, of which mildew is the most easily recog- 
nised by the amateur, and the several kinds of insects 
and worms which are also classified according to their 
methods of attack. Some of them bore, but these 
are in the orchard rather than the garden. Others 
eat the stems and leaves and fruit, and still an- 
other miserable crew just sucks out the life juices 
of the plant. The selection of the cures must be 
with reference to the weapons Nature has provided 
the creatures for their work of destruction. 

For those that eat and chew things up the best 
remedy is Paris green, hellebore or arsenate of lead. 
Paris green, for instance, is the most popular poison 
with which to fight the potato bug, and the cutworm 
that ruins so many tomato plants, especially in long- 
continued dry spells. For the potatoes the poison 
can be blown on the foliage with a pair of bellows, 
but care must be taken that the under as well as the 
upper surfaces of the leaves are sprinkled. 

To use this poison for the tomato plants it is 
best to mix it with commeal and scatter it on the 
ground round the plants. The cutworm almost 
never leaves the ground. He cuts off the stem at the 
surface. Of course the commeal method is not de- 

46 



GARDEN EUGENICS 

sirable if there are any chickens about. For the cut- 
worm and potato bug hellebore and arsenate of lead 
also may be used, as well as for all the pests of the 
chewing tribe. 

For the sucking variety of plant destroyers there 
are the emulsions of kerosene, lime-sulphur sprays 
and whale-oil soap. Lime sulphur seems to have the 
weight of evidence in its favour now from the various 
experiment stations as a cure for scale insects that 
ruin fruit trees by attacking the bark. It may be 
applied as a spray for the good of the bark and, with 
a little arsenate of lead dissolved in it, makes a most 
effective poison application for the worms that at- 
tack fruit buds. 

A gallon of water in which several plugs of to- 
bacco have been steeped costs almost nothing as com- 
pared with the commercial mixture and will prove an 
excellent killer for insects on the stems and leaves 
of plants. 

Peas are afflicted with mildew and attacked by 
weevils and the pea aphids or lice. For these 
troubles spray with Bordeaux mixture or powder the 
plants with sulphur. The weevil comes from bad 
seed, so the dealer must be depended upon to save 

47 



GARDEN EUGENICS 

you from that unless you select especially fine pods 
of your own growing for the seed supply for the next 
year. To get rid of the lice, brush them from the 
vines in the middle of a hot day. 

To save the beans from both blight and pod spot, 
spray thoroughly with Bordeaux mixture as soon as 
the third leaf develops and every fortnight there- 
after. A sprinkling of kerosene near the row will 
make the ground unlivable for a maggot that at- 
tacks beans. 

Melons, squashes and cucumbers may be considered 
as a single group with reference to both disease and 
insect enemies. For the blight and mildew spray 
with Bordeaux mixture as soon as the vines begin to 
spread. The animal enemies are the melon worm, 
the squash borer and the cucumber beetle. Although 
named for the plants with which they are particu- 
larly associated, each one of these pests will attack 
all three vegetables — cucumber, melon and squash. 
Hellebore or arsenate of lead provides a good defence 
against these things. 

Rust is the principal disease that attacks aspara- 
gus. It affects the tops and will kill the plants if 
allowed to go on unchecked. As it takes three years 

48 



GARDEN EUGENICS 

to get an asparagus bed into bearing it is worth while 
to control this disease and finally get rid of it. To 
do so dust the tops with dry sulphur soon after cut- 
ting the crop. Put it on early in the morning, when 
the dew will hold the powder, and repeat this treat- 
ment once a month. 

Animal enemies of asparagus are the beetle and a 
maggot called the miner. As suggested by its name 
the miner gets under the skin of the plant near the 
ground. Trap by leaving a few uncut plants on 
which the miner-producing fly will lay her eggs. 
About the first of July these infested plants should 
be pulled out and burned. 

The small asparagus beetle, less than a quarter of 
an inch long and brilliantly coloured in red, yellow 
and bla-ck, can be got rid of by dusting with air- 
slaked lime. 

Most of the diseases to which the potato is sub- 
ject may be avoided by intelligent handling of the 
seed before planting. In the first place select only 
the soundest, healthiest looking potatoes to cut for 
your seed. If possible know something about the soil 
conditions under which the seed was grown. After 
cutting sprinkle with sulphur- — the old-fashioned 

49 



GARDEN EUGENICS 

method. A newer precaution, and perhaps a more 
effective one, as already suggested in the second 
chapter, is to place the seed in an air-tight room 
and there burn a formaldehyde candle as suggested 
in the second chapter. The same result is obtained 
by soaking the seed for two hours in a solution of 
half a pint of liquid formaldehyde to fifteen gallons 
of water. 

For leaf blight spray the plant with Bordeaux 
mixture. By putting an ounce of Paris green in 
every ten gallons of the Bordeaux mixture you get a 
combined insecticide and fungicide which will kill 
the familiar potato bug as well as control the leaf 
blight. For a small potato patch pick the bugs off 
by hand. 

Blight and rust aJre the diseases of celery. Con- 
trol both by spraying with Bordeaux mixture. 
Hand-picking is the best way of getting rid of the cel- 
ery caterpillar and this work may be supplemented by 
spraying with hellebore, in either powder or liquid 
form. 

Lettuce diseases are best controlled by pulling out 
the affected plants ; at least pull off the bad leaves 
and remove them from the garden and destroy. 

50 



GARDEN EUGENICS 

Trouble may be avoided by care in watering. Do 
not sprinkle the leaves themselves, as this is apt to 
cause mildew. For the lettuce louse sprinkle to- 
bacco dust on the soil as close to the plants as pos- 
sible. Persian powder, which is non-poisonous, may 
be used to get rid of the lettuce worm. 

Consider cabbage and cauliflower together. Lim- 
ing the soil and crop rotation are the specific pre- 
cautions against club root, which causes the roots 
to swell and prevents the plants from heading. 
Black rot is also warded off* by not planting where 
cabbage and cauliflower have been before. Another 
precaution is to soak the seed for a few minutes in a 
pint of water in which a tablet of mercuric chloride 
has been dissolved. 

Various maggots, worms and beetles attack the 
cabbage. When the plants are young spray with 
arsenate of lead. Dissolve two ounces of the poison 
in five gallons of water. Later on dust with Per- 
sian powder. 

B'ordeaux mixture is the spray for the mildew that 
attacks the onion. A precaution against smut is 
to put a very hght sprinkling of sulphur into the 
drill when the seed is planted. Small yellow insects, 

51 



GARDEN EUGENICS 

called thrips, sometimes attack onions. Tobacco 
dust will kill them. 

Smut, rust and ear rot are the three diseases most 
prevalent in the sweet-corn patch. Use of hen ma- 
nure instead of that from the barnyard helps some. 
Chemical fertilizer is still better. Plant the corn as 
early as possible and use ground that has not been 
in com before for two or three years. When the 
silver-grey coloured lump appears on the stalk or 
ear, filled with black smut, cut it off and burn it. 
That is about as far as the experts have gone in ar- 
riving at the control of corn diseases. 

These suggestions also have a bearing on the in- 
sect enemies of corn. The surest way of avoiding 
the worm already referred to on the ear is early 
planting. For the cutworm, which is a specially 
serious pest in dry weather, use poison on the ground 
near the plant. This refers of course only to the 
time when the com is just a tender sprout and is in 
danger of being cut off at the ground, just as to- 
mato plants are destroyed. A paste made of wheat 
bran and Paris green scattered on the ground will 
be taken as bait by the worms and that will end them. 



52 



CHAPTER VI 

WATER WHENEVER NEEDED 

In each of the many public schools of the country 
that offer courses in practical gardening one of the 
leading questions on the final examination papers 
should be : " What would you do to save your gar- 
den in a drought that lasts a month or more? " 

Ability to answer that question in a complete and 
lucid way should win for the pupil a very high mark 
from the teacher. Ability to live up to the answer 
in actual operations, if it should become general, 
would relieve gardening of its cliief drawback, add 
very materially to the country's food supply, and 
put an end to the discouragement that is apt to come 
annually to all vegetable growers. 

Of course the answer in it simplest form — so 
simple in fact that it does not explain — is " irri- 
gate and cultivate." Cultivation with its dry-farm- 
ing development is simple enough, whether it be 

53 



WATER WHENEVER NEEDED 

with the hand rake and hoe or the larger horse- 
drawn substitutes for those simple tools. But irri- 
gatiori is another matter. It is a process that ranges 
all the way from watering with a garden hose to 
the elaborate engineering projects of the arid sec- 
tions of the country. In the Western and South- 
western regions of little or no rainfall the problem 
has been settled scientifically and adequately, be- 
cause the absolute necessity of irrigation to make 
the land livable has been recognized. 

In the so-called fertile regions next to nothing 
has been done, because the gardeners take chances — 
long chances — on getting their water supply in the 
regular way. But there is scant consolation, as you 
contemplate a burned-up garden at the end of a rain- 
less July, to know that, according to the law of 
averages, you should have had so many generous 
inches of rainfall in that very month. That law is 
about as useful in a garden in a dry year as the law 
still on the statute books of New Jersey prohibiting 
a man in that State from kissing his wife on Sun- 
day. 

As a matter of fact the man who raises things on 
the reclaimed, irrigated deserts has a great advan- 

54 



WATER WHENEVER NEEDED 

tage over the supposedly more fortunate grower 
elsewhere, who is at the mercy of the weather uncer- 
tainties — he can have his water whenever he wants 
it and in quantities to suit his needs. 

That is just what you should have, no matter in 
what part of th.e country your place may be. If 
your garden is small, near the house and in a town 
with a public water supply, the hose will do the busi- 
ness, after a fashion, if you use it in a thoroughgo- 
ing way for real irrigation and not merely for a little 
nambj^-pamby sprinkhng of leaves. In a long, dry 
season the man wdth the hose should direct his stream 
between the rows and put enough water into each 
aisle to flood it. Then the roots will get what they 
need. It is a long process, but one treatment a week 
of this sort throughout the continuation of the 
drought will save the garden, especially If the Irri- 
gation is supplemented on the next day by sufficient 
cultivation to cover the surface with a mulch. 

But your garden may be too big for this irriga- 
tion by hand, or you may not have the city water 
supply. In place of that convenience, however, you 
have got a ver}' real problem, the solving of which 
is interesting and yields as much satisfaction as the 

55 



WATER WHENEVER NEEDED 

first-year gardener gets out of his first ear of corn. 

The two main points of the matter are the source 
of water supply and the method of its distribution. 
If there is a small brook or running stream on the 
place, one that does not go dry in summer, a ram 
is about as simple a contrivance as there is for send- 
ing the water to a storage tank, from which the pipes 
or ditches may radiate over the garden or orchard or 
directly into the main trench across the highest level 
of the area, with smaller ditches running to the plant 
rows, carrying the water by gravity. Unless the 
garden is an absolutely level stretch of ground the 
gravity may be depended upon for doing a great 
part of the work of distributing, and the matter will 
be greatly simplified by planting the vegetable rows 
so they run up and down, rather than across the 
slope of the land. That, of course, is true no mat- 
ter what the source of supply is. 

If no stream or brook is available bore or drive a 
well at or as near the high point of the garden as 
a permanent supply of water can be found. Then 
install the pump. For a small place the ordinary 
hand pump is better than nothing and will justify 
the trouble of making the well. A double-action, 

56 



WATER WHENEVER NEEDED 

hand force pump that will give a continuous stream 
is better still. It will give more water per minute 
and will also enable two persons to work at the same 
time on the handle, not only saving the garden, but 
affording wonderful exercise for the back. Best of 
all is a gasolene engine. A small one-horse affair 
of the farm type will cost considerably less than a 
hundred dollars, and before it is worn out it will save 
much more than a hundred dollars' worth of fresh 
vegetables. 

For a garden of a half-acre or more such an en- 
gine would be a wise investment if the owner were de- 
termined to have it at its best and highest state of 
production, year in and year out, regardless of the 
lack of rainfall. The engine could also be utilized 
in a dozen other ways about the place when not in 
commission at the pump. 

A fourth choice is the windmill. It costs more 
than the gasolene engine and there is no reason in 
the world now why one should be used other than the 
fact that it looks rather picturesque. With a wind- 
mill as the motive power of the irrigation system it 
will be necessary to have a storage tank to allow for 
the fact that there may b^ no wind at the time the 

57 



WATER WHENEVER NEEDED 

water is most needed. With the engine the tank 
can be omitted, for the gasolene will work at any 
time and the water can be pumped directly into pipes 
or ditches of the distribution system. 

On soils made largely of clay a good-sized stream 
of water can be carried a long distance in an open 
ditch. In sandy, porous gardens it will be necessary 
to send the water along in wooden troughs or pipes, 
with outlets that can be opened and closed when it 
is necessary to supply the various parts of the gar- 
den. 

But the problem of distribution is a special one 
for each garden, depending for its solution on the 
character of the soil, the extent of the area to be 
watered, and the slopes. The one general fact that 
applies to all gardens is that a source of supply 
should be established at the top of the land. Get 
that first. The rest is best worked out by experi- 
menting. Try the open ditches first. If they will not 
serve the purpose spend a very little more money and 
make V-shaped troughs out of old boards and then 
go on and improve the system by changes here and 
alterations there, a little each year. It is neither 
difficult nor expensive. 

58 



WATER WHENEVER NEEDED 

The writer kept a half-acre garden green and 
thrifty through two consecutive dry seasons — in 
one there was a drought lasting forty-eight days — 
by a stream of water pumped b}^ an engine that cost 
only seventy dollars new and is still rendering good 
service after five years, with not more than twenty 
dollars for repairs charged against it. The daily 
cost of operation was a shade less than a cent for 
gasolene and lubricating oil. Irrigation is only an 
occasional and incidental use of this machine. Its 
regular daily work is to pump water from a well to 
an attic tank to supply the dwelling house. 

To harness it up for watering the garden it was 
only necessary to attach thirty feet of pipe that cost 
fifteen cents a foot, and send the water through that 
to a big v/ooden trough running across the top of 
the garden, with openings opposite the upper end of 
each row between the plants. That Is about all there 
was to a very simple and inexpensive but useful irri- 
gation system. 

Spread the first cost over a period of a few years 
and it does not average more than the cost of fer- 
tilizers and seeds and plants. On the other hand it 
assures a supply of water to dissolve the plant foods 

59 



WATER WHENEVER NEEDED 

that are In the soil, useless to the plants until they 
are dissolved, and to distribute these various chemi- 
cal foods throughout the soil as well as putting them 
in available form for the roots to feed on. 

Further than that the water holds in solution 
various soil acids that are necessary to the breaking 
up of the foods and it means life for the several 
forms of bacteria that are essential to plant life. 
Don't underrate water. If all the water needed for 
the production of a field of corn could be collected 
and impounded on the surface of that same field it 
would form a lake eight inches deep. Nearly every 
vegetable that grows in the garden would furnish 
equally striking evidence of the great value of mois- 
ture. The water required to produce a single hill 
of cucumbers would fill a half barrel. 

Recent experiments have shown that the weight of 
beans grown on a small Irrigated area was three 
times that of the weight of the bean crop grown on 
the same number of square feet in a garden near by, 
consisting of the same quality of soil. The seed was 
of the same variety and worth for both plantings, 
and the fertilization and cultivation were also the 
same. The very material difFarence was due entirely 

60 



WATER WHENEVER NEEDED 

to the supply of water in one bean patch and the 
lack of it in the other. 

But no matter how dry the ground may seem, no 
matter how many days have elapsed since the last 
shower, there is always some moisture in the soil. 
If you do not want to take the trouble to add to it 
and renew it by the artificial means of irrigation you 
must at least save what little there is by frequent 
cultivation. Water in the soil, whether it comes 
from below or from a recent rain, is always making 
its way toward the surface, where it evaporates and 
is lost, so far as the plants are concerned. 

This escape is made possible by the capillarity of 
the soil — that is, the fine earth particles form them- 
selves naturally into fine vertical lines and the water 
climbs these to the surface, just as water will climb 
up a towel, as you will see if you will dip the lower 
end into a bowl full of water. Of course if you cut 
across all the threads of that towel there would be 
no ladders for the water to climb on and it would all 
stay in the bowl. That is exactly what happens 
when you cultivate. You break those fine con- 
tinuous lines of soil particles with the rake or hoe 
and the water stays beneath the surface, where the 

61 



WATER WHENEVER NEEDED 

roots of the plants can get the benefit of it. But 
after a few days the capillarity of the soil restores 
itself by a natural process, and that must be offset 
by another cultivation. To express the fact in other 
words, you must keep constantly on the surface of 
the garden a mulch of dust, which acts as a blanket 
to keep the moisture in and may be the salvation 
of the garden during the dry weeks of August. 

Do not get the notion that irrigation takes the 
place of cultivation. If anything it is the other 
way about. Water alone, whether supplied natu- 
rally or artificially, will not produce good crops with- 
out tillage. A well-cultivated garden will do better 
in a perfectly dry season than an entirely neglected 
garden in a season of normal rainfall. 



62 



CHAPTER VII 



GARDEN MISTAKES OF V A R I O IT S SORTS 

If you have failed to plough or spade in the fall after 
the last flowers and vegetables have been gathered 
— an excellent thing for the soil — there may be 
some compensation in that very neglect. Fall plough- 
ing buries what might serve as all-winter evidence of 
blunders that have been made and that evidence is 
a good thing to keep in view as a warning for the 
season to come. Those rows of wilted, frost-black- 
ened vines and bushes, torn by the winds and un- 
sightly with mud, tell a useful story. They show, 
for one thing, that some seeds were planted where 
others would have done better; that this plant had 
too much shade and the other not enough; that the 
sandy spot at the end of the garden was not put to 
its best use ; that time might have been saved on cul- 
tivation had there been different grouping and classi- 
fication in another section. 

63 



GARDEN MISTAKES 

In no enterprise of fun or business can the amateur 
make more blunders than in growing things. So the 
proper study of a gardener in winter is his old gar- 
den with its record of what should have been differ- 
ent. It is always in sight from at least one window 
of the house and the true enthusiast will wander into 
it whenever he can, between seasons, to plan for the 
new campaign. 

These mistakes are not those of laziness or neglect 
but the less obvious errors that any one is apt to make 
until he has had the experiences of many summers, 
no matter how hard he works, no matter how free 
of weeds he keeps his patch. The books will not save 
liim from all the blunders and the cultural directions 
of the seedsmen are not infallible because there were 
never two gardens just alike or that required the 
same treatment to get the best results. So for each 
and every flower bed and vegetable patch there must 
be built up a set of rules best adapted to it and based 
on the varying conditions of several seasons. In 
other words you must know your garden as the good 
skipper knows his boat or the skillful horseman his 
mount before you can get the largest response from 
its soil. 

64 



GARDEN MISTAKES 

The seedsman may tell you that carrots, parsnips 
and melons do best in sandy soil, but the seedsman, 
cannot come out to your place and dig in your gar- 
den until he finds that at one end of it there is more 
sand in the loam than at the other end. You may 
hit upon the right spot by accident, but there is great 
danger you will plant those carrots where the celery 
ought to be, in the heaviest soil on the place, and 
vice versa. Then poor crops of both celery and car- 
rots will be the first indication that something is 
wrong. You must find it out and make a shift next 
season. 

The parsnips may be of excellent growth and yet 
not live up to their reputation as a table delicacy. 
Probably they were dug too soon. Parsnips should 
remain in the ground till after frost to acquire their 
best flavour. Another mistake to avoid this year. 

Tomatoes need air and plenty of it, although the 
ordinary guidebooks never mention that important 
fact. So the amateur may follow^ every rule as to 
soil, distance apart and fertilizer for his tomato 
plants and then get unsatisfactory fruits because the 
plants are too near a wall of corn stalks that cut off 
the needed ventilation. If he avoids that difficulty 

65 



GARDEN MISTAKES 

he may neglect to cut out some of the too luxuriant 
leaf growth of the plant and the fruit will come to a 
poor end, smothered in its own foliage. 

Eggplants and peppers need all the sun that is 
available ; lettuce and peas want shade — two sim- 
ple facts, the knowledge of which will mean better 
results for four of the vegetables indispensable in a 
complete garden. Put the peas and lettuce where 
they will get some protection from the heat in the 
shadow of the com or the pole beans. Melons, cu- 
cumbers and squash must be in the open, where they 
may ramble at will without getting in the way of the 
bush plants and without having their own freedom 
curtailed. So it goes for every plant in the cata- 
logue. No matter how small the garden or how few 
the varieties put in it, there is in that patch one 
spot better than any other for each particular vege- 
table. The problem is to find it, if not this year 
then next or the year after. It is one of the many 
puzzles that make gardening interesting as well as 
healthful and profitable. 

In thinning out beets or lettuce after the first 
planting you may use the utmost care to have mathe- 
matically exact and equal intervals between the plants 

66 



GARDEN MISTAKES 

that are left and still not get the results expected. 
It is altogether possible that the roots of the plants 
that remained were too much disturbed and never 
had a fair chance to do their work of supporting the 
season's growth. That is a common error. 

Another mistake and this one the winter evidence 
of the garden debris tells very clearly, lies in plant- 
ing the same thing in the same place year after year. 
Rotation is as much needed in the kitchen garden 
as in the fields. No two things take the same chem- 
ical plant foods out of the soil in the same propor- 
tions, so a change-about gives the land a chance to 
recuperate each season from the effect of the chief 
drain on its resources in the year before. This year, 
for instance, plant the peas where the beets were last 
season and make similar changes throughout the 
garden. But avoid relocating things in spots that 
have proved unsuitable to their peculiar needs. 

A different method of getting the benefit of ro- 
tation without changing the layont of the garden 
from year to year is to shift the soil itself. At one 
end of the patch dig a trench the full depth of the 
spade. Then shovel the next strip of earth into it, 
the third strip into the second trench and so on down 

67 



GARDEN MISTAKES 

the length of the patch, until you fill the last trench 
with the earth taken from the first. It is hard work 
but effective and, on a small area, worth while. In- 
cid^tallj this process assures much more thorough 
breaking up of the soil than ordinary spading. 

All plants need food and plenty of it, but no seed, 
when put in the ground, should come into direct 
contact with large amounts of manure or other fer- 
tilizer. Ignorance of this rule accounts for the fail- 
ure of many vegetables to sprout. 

It is, of course, needless to add that it is better to 
have no garden unless the gardener is willing to take 
the usual precautions against the worm and insect 
pests. 

In the late Autumn sit down in a weedy, dried-out, 
neglected comer of the garden and make notes, not 
merely mental, but with pencil and paper, of all the 
evidence of blunders that lies spread out before j^ou. 
Then, after putting down all you can actually see at 
the fag end of the growing season work 3^our memory 
for material of an added record of all those early-in- 
the-season mistakes, evidence of which has been hid- 
den by time and rubbish and weeds. 

When you have finished you will have a chart of 
68 



GARDEN MISTAKES 

errors, a list of mistakes you do not want to repeat 
in next year's garden that will be as useful to you 
another spring as a chart of rocks and reefs is to the 
skipper making a difficult harbour. Just trying to 
remember all the blunders of omission and commis- 
sion from one year to the next, without the aid of a 
record, will not do at all. You have made too many, 
unless you are the one gardener out of a thousand. 
A garden diary if religiously kept tells many a tale, 
and each tale should be a valuable lesson. 

It will be altogether appropriate and also helpful 
to follow the botanical plan of classifying your 
wrongdoings in the garden under heads and subheads 
— the species and varieties, so to speak — in some 
such way as this : 

Species — Neglect 
Varieties: Weeds; fungi; insect pests; water — too much 
or too little; failure to thin out; failure to pinch back; lack 
of tillage; lack of fertilizer. 

Species — Fattlty Plan 
Varieties: Running rows in wrong direction for easy culti- 
vation; bad placing of plants with reference to their special 
needs for sun or shade and air and water drainage; bad 
placing of plants with reference to each other; placing of plants 
without due regard to their special soil requirements. 

Species — Faulty Time Schedule 
Varieties: Untimely planting for best results; too much or 

69 



GARDEN MISTAKES 

too little of one thing at one time; failure to provide succes- 
sion; ignoring possibilities of companion cropping; too long 
intervals between harvesting of one vegetable and planting 
more of the same thing or something else on the same ground. 

Species — Errors of Judgment 
Varieties: Wrong fertilizer or wrong use of fertilizer; using 
fungicide instead of insecticide, or vice versa, because of failure 
to understand the plant trouble to be cured; failure to watch 
weather to take advantage of its changes and to meet its 
emergencies. 

Of course anybody can add to that list out of his 
own experience, but it will serve as a sample. Go 
through it again honestly, and see how many charges 
there are to which you yourself must plead guilty. 

If you can plead not guilty to the weed indictment 
the chances are that you have a fairly good answer 
to some of the other charges grouped under neglect. 
For weeding in itself takes care very largely of the 
tillage or cultivation, except the preliminary prepa- 
ration of the soil before planting. It also has helped 
materially in conserving the soil moisture during a 
dry season. But the hoe work and the barnyard or 
chemical manure have been time and effort and ma- 
terial gone partly to waste if insects or disease have 
been allowed the run of the garden. The size and 
the flavour of the melons have been considerably be- 
low what they should have been if the vines were not 

70 



GARDEN MISTAKES 

pinched ojfF at the ends, and the size and quality of 
the tomatoes, the peaches and various other fruits 
have been below par if excessive fruits were not 
picked off in an early thinning-out process to give 
opportunity for a reasonable number to thrive and 
be properly nourished within the capacity of the 
plants. 

The matter of too much or too little water is men- 
tioned specifically under the general head of neglect. 
If there has been too much, if the seed has rotted 
in the ground or blight and mildew have ruined 
plants in places that were too damp, it simply means 
that your neglect to construct a very simple, inex- 
pensive drainage ditch early in the season has ren- 
dered your garden or a part of it practically worth- 
less. 

If you have not had enough water, if in spite of 
aU your mulching and dry farming with rake and 
hoe and cultivator to prevent surface evaporation 
the plants have suffered from lack of moisture, that 
has been your fault too. You cannot get a verdict 
of acquittal on that charge by pleading that there 
has been no rain. You should have irrigated. No 
garden is too small to receive that attention, without 

71 



GARDEN MISTAKES 

which it cannot produce, and no garden is located 
where some simple device cannot be arranged for 
furnishing water. 

A little Paris green or some other poison mixed 
with bran and spread on the ground when jou set 
out the young tomato plants would have prevented 
the loss of all those vines that were nipped off by the 
cutworms. A spray of more Paris green would have 
taken care of the potato bugs and given you a good 
crop instead of that patch of shriveled, leafless vines 
which you now have to record in your list of failures. 
Another half hour with the spray pump, filled with 
Bordeaux mixture, would have stopped the wilting 
of the vines and given you a crop of melons worth 
eating. And so on through the entire list of vege- 
tables and the bug and fungous pests which attack 
them. 

Perhaps you have been guilty of trying to run a 
garden without fertilizer. In that case you are sen- 
tenced to six months at hard labour of reading at 
least once a week the Government agricultural pam- 
phlets on the soil's need of manure. That about 
winds up the various forms of neglect that can be put 
down in a general statement. Of course each indi- 

72 



GARDEN MISTAKES 

vidual gardener may have some secret form of fool- 
ishness or carelessness which he must remedy for 
himself. 

The garden may be a difficult, irksome thing to 
work because of a faulty plan or no plan at all at 
the outset. If you begin haphazard, without a map, 
there is no limit to the mistakes you may make later 
in the season. Possibly the rows run the short way 
of the garden instead of the length of it, thereby 
materially increasing the trouble and time required 
for thorough cultivation. That, in nine cases out 
of ten, is only another way of saying that the thor- 
ough cultivation has not been given. 

There may have been a map that was all wrong, 
a preliminary drawing full of laboriously worked- 
out blunders, such as putting the high-growing corn 
or pole limas up and down the east side of the garden 
where they would serve as a complete barrier to rob 
all the low plants of the much-needed forenoon sun. 
Potatoes may have been planted last spring where 
potatoes had been in the garden of the year before, 
and you have wondered all the season why disease 
has attacked the vines in spite of everything you 
could do to make them thrifty. Peppers that need 

73 



GARDEN MISTAKES 

much sun may have been tucked away in a shady 
corner where green peas and lettuce would have done 
well, even in the heat of the summer. Failure to 
learn at the outset whether there were any soil dif- 
ferences within the garden area, with reference to the 
amount of sand or clay or humus or moisture, may 
have been the cause of putting various things in the 
parts least suitable for them, whereas a different ar- 
rangement would have provided for each vegetable 
the conditions it most needed for good growth and 
abundant crop. 

Avoid repetition of all this second group of mis- 
takes, due to a faulty plan, by having an adequate 
garden map ; b}^ making use of the record of failures 
and successes of this year as a guide to what to do 
and not to do next time ; by informing yourself as to 
the character of your own soil throughout the gar- 
den ; and by knowing the particular requirements of 
each and every vegetable on your planting list, as to 
sun, moisture and soil texture and material. 

Faults of a defective planting schedule are not so 
easy to avoid because the thing aimed at is to have 
just enough of each thing throughout the season, 
with sufficient surplus for the canning, preserving 

74 



GARDEN MISTAKES 

and storing for winter use. That is obviously a 
problem which must be solved for each individual 
by himself or herself with reference to many personal 
factors. You know what your own blunders of this 
sort have been if you have had periods of too much 
of some one thing or periods of dearth. One general 
rule to help remedy this trouble is to practise a little 
self-restraint at the very beginning of the planting 
season and then distribute your interest and enthu- 
siasm for new plantings throughout the next four 
months. 

Don't, for example, go radish mad in April and 
then forget to make the succession plantings of bush 
beans that are possible all through the season. Esti- 
mate as closely as possible the number of peas you 
will require at the outset of the cropping season and 
then plant just enough to supply that want, making 
a supplementary planting a week later, and so on 
throughout the season with all the vegetables for 
which there is time for two or more crops. 

And in this matter of succession planting do not 
forget the possibilities of companion cropping — 
that is the planting of two things together in the 
same plat, one of which will mature quickly and be 

75 



GARDEN MISTAKES 

disposed of before the slow-growing companion gets 
to the stage where it requires all the plant food and 
moisture within the given area for its own use. 
Having a good schedule will not only furnish an even 
supply of food for the table but will enable you to 
get the maximum results from every inch of your 
garden. 



76 



CHAPTER VIII 

TAKING PLANTING CUES FROM NA- 
TURE 

Do not take the printed almanacs and seed-planting 
calendars too literally. In this matter the modems, 
though they have done much to better some other 
things, cannot improve on the customs of the an- 
cients. It is safer and saner, for example, to follow 
the good old rule of planting corn when the apple 
trees blossom than to plant corn, regardless of 
weather and soil conditions, on a day set down in a 
book that was written months before anybody knew 
what sort of season was coming. Furthermore the 
apple blossom and other homely suggestions apply 
wherever the garden happens to be, while the printed 
calendar has to be revised not only for weather but 
for every material difference in latitude or altitude. 
This business of having a garden is, after all, an 
adventure with Nature herself and cues for its vari- 

77 



CUES FROM NATURE 

ous processes must come from her to be reliable. 
There is no lack of them, from the flowering of the 
first wild violet on the sunny side of the road to the 
glory of the goldenrod. They are much more pic- 
turesque and fascinating than dates and are easier 
to remember. 

So why not plant the peas and the onions when 
the peach trees put out their first blossoms or the 
new grape leaves begin to unfold? Try to get the 
beet seed in on the day the cherry tree bursts into 
bloom. Let the lilac and forsythia, the dandelion 
and the dogwood become associated in your mind, 
year after year, with some of the early garden activi- 
ties and you will soon be independent of any man- 
made calendar and able to astonish your neighbour 
with expert advice, for your authority will be better 
than his. It is all right to plant at a certain fixed 
period in an average yenr as to weather and ground 
conditions, but if it is an unusual season, ahead or 
behind the normal, Nature's own signs will tell you 
when the books will not. 

Keep a record, a garden diary, of all these things. 
Be as statistical as you like on the number of square 
feet you plant and the number of bushels or dozens 

78 



CUES FROM NATURE 

you harvest and the estimated market value thereof. 
More important still, write down w^hen and under 
•what conditions of soil and weather you do things and 
what Nature is doing in her larger garden about you 
at the same time. It is that sort of a diary, kept 
through a series of years, that gives a man the real 
lore of gardens and makes him a true gardener. 

In the greater part of the United States each 
square foot of Everyman's Garden may be made to 
produce two good crops within one season and there 
are a few combinations whereby a part of the garden 
may produce three crops. 

But to get this maximum output from his soil and, 
incidentally, have a midsummer renewal of his early 
spring hopes and enthusiasms, the gardener must 
chart his ground and plan his time with the accuracy 
of a railroad time-table and then adhere as closely 
to the programme as weather and other conditions 
will permit. It is essential that the plan adopted in 
the spring be for ail summer. The owner of the 
garden must know not only what and where he is 
going to plant first, but what and where he is going 
to plant three, even four months hence, and also 
what crop will follow another. 

79 



CUES FROM NATURE 

Two bits of information are essential at the out- 
set : What is the total number of days in any given 
part of the country during which plant growth may 
be expected — that is, what is the maximum interval 
between the last killing frost of spring and the first 
killing frost of fall, as based on averages of previous 
years for the particular region in which the garden 
is located? Second, what is the approximate inter- 
val for each vegetable between the planting of the 
seed and the end of harvesting the crop? 

With these facts known, all sorts of combinations 
are possible in the way of rotation and succession. 
These two things are not exactly the same; at least 
there is enough difference to make explanation worth 
while. Succession is the planting of the same vege- 
table, peas for instance, on the installment plan — 
that is, one row on the first of April, a second row 
on the seventh, and so on. By this system the gar- 
dener will begin to have peas from the second row by 
the time he has gathered the last pod from the first, 
thus assuring himself of an uninterrupted supply all 
summer. 

Rotation, on the other hand, would be the putting 
of beans or potatoes where the peas have been as soon 

89 



CUES FROM NATURE 

as the planting of peas has yielded its crop and the 
vines have been pulled up. Both succession and ro- 
tation are necessary if the garden is to amount to all 
it is capable of. 

According to the law of averages as applied to 
killing frosts there are two hundred and fourteen 
days of plant growth that may be depended upon 
each year in the temperate parts of the United 
States, beginning with April first and ending Octo- 
ber thirty-first. There is no vegetable annual that 
requires so much of that time that there isn't time 
left for at least one other crop. 

The chart at the end of this chapter showing how 
the same ground may be used to advantage two and 
three times, is based on actual performance in a com- 
muter's vegetable garden in Middle New Jersey. 
Each of the horizontal sections covers one piece of 
ground in one season. All of the second-planting 
possibilities as enumerated in the sixth column of 
the chart have been tried out in different years with 
reasonable success. In only two years did the third 
plantings amount to anything worth while. But 
that does not affect the theory of the plan. 

Of course the two sections taken for the chart did 
81 



CUES FROM NATURE 

not cover the whole garden. There was corn planted 
elsewhere in May as well as the planting in June to 
follow the early peas. In still other parts of the 
garden there were varieties not mentioned at all in 
the chart. The illustration is given rather as an 
example of garden planning than as a guide of what 
seeds to plant. That must be determined by Every- 
man and his family according to their own vegetable 
likes and dislikes and their appetites. 

Here are the planting directions and statistics 
relative to the time for maturity required by all the 
common vegetables, which will enable every gardener 
to make his own chart in advance for all of the com- 
ing season. They are grouped according to the 
months in which the first and successive plantings 
of each sort should be begun. 

Starting ix Aphil 

Beets — Plant in April, May, June, July. Seventy days to 
first of harvest. Thin out to four inches apart in the rows; 
rows a foot apart. One ounce of seed for fifty feet. 

Brussels Sprouts — Plant in April, May, June. About one 
hundred and ten days to harvest. Plants two feet apart in 
rows, rows two feet apart. One-eighth of an ounce of seed 
for fifty feet. 

Early Cabbage — Plant in April. About one hundred and 
ten days to harvest. Plants two feet apart, rows two feet 
apart. One-eighth of an ounc« of seed for fifty plants. It is 

8je^ 



CUES FROM NATURE 

better to buy the plants and set them out than to raise the 
cabbage from seed. 

Early Cakrot — Plant in April. About seventy-five days 
to harvest. Thin out to four inches apart, rows a foot apart. 
Half an ounce of seed for fifty feet. 

Early Cauliflower — Plant in April. About one hundred 
and twenty days to harvest. Plants two feet apart, rows two 
feet apart. One-eighth of an ounce of seed for fifty feet. 

Celery — Plant in April. Ready for use in October. 
Plants five inches apart, rows three feet apart. One-eighth 
of an ounce of seed for fifty feet of row. 

Ending — Plant in April, May, June, July. About eighty- 
five days to harvest. Plants a foot apart, rows a foot apart. 
Half an ounce of seed for fifty feet of row. 

Kohl-Rabi — Plant in April, May, June. Ready in about 
seventy-five days. Plants a foot apart, rows a foot and a half 
apart. One-eighth of an ounce of seed for fifty feet. 

Leek — Plant in April and May. Ready for use in one hun- 
dred and forty days. Plants six inches apart, rows a foot 
apart Half an ounce of seed for fifty feet. 

Lettuce — Plant in April, May, June, July, to middle of 
August. Ready for use in eighty days. Thin out to eight 
inches apart, rows a foot and a half apart. One-eighth of 
an ounce of seed for fifty feet. 

Onion — Plant in April and May. Ready for use in about 
one hundred and thirty-five days. Plants three inches apart, 
rows a foot apart. Half an ounce of seed for fifty feet. It 
is better to get onion sets — a pint and a half for fifty feet of 
row — put them out in the same month that you would plant 
the seed and at the same distance apart. 

Parsnip — Plant in April. Ready for use in four months, 
but is improved in flavor if left in the ground until after frost. 
Plants four inches apart, rows a foot apart. One-quarter 
ounce seed for fifty feet. 

Peas — Plant in April, May, June, July. Ready for use ia 
83 



CUES FROM NATURE 

sixty days. Plants two inches apart, rows two feet apart. 
Stake the rows with brush for the plants to cling to. 

Potatoes — Plant in April and May — be sure to wait until 
ground is well dried out. Ready to dig in about ninety days. 
Plant in hills two feet apart each way. One peck of seed 
potato for every fifty hills. 

Radish — Plant in small quantities all summer from the 
first of April to the end of September. Ready for use in 
thirty-five days. Plants two inches apart, rows ten inches 
apart. Half an ounce of seed for fifty feet. 

Salsify — Plant in April and May. Ready for use in about 
one hundred and sixty days. Plants six inches apart, rows two 
feet apart. An ounce of seed for every fifty feet. 

Spinach — Plant any time from first of April to the middle 
of September. Frost will not hurt spinach if it is covered 
with a little straw. Ready for use in about seventy days. 
Plants four inches apart, rows a foot apart. Half an ounce 
of seed for fifty feet of row. 

Turnip — Plant in April, May, June, July, Aug-ust; some 
varieties may be planted as late as the middle of September, 
Ready for use in seventy days. Plants six inches apart, rows 
a foot apart. Half an ounce of seed to fifty feet of row. 

Starting in May 

Bush Beans — Plant in May, June, July, August. Har- 
vest begins in about fifty days. Plants three inches apart, 
rows two feet apart. One pint of seed for every fifty feet. 

Lima and Pole Beans — Plant in May and June. Ready in 
about eighty days. Set poles three feet apart in rows three 
feet apart. A pint of seed for every fifty hills. 

Late Cabbage — Plant in May and June. Harvest in the 
early winter and store in a good vegetable cellar or bury in a 
pit. Plants two feet apart, rows two feet apart. One-quarter 
of an ounce of seed for fifty feet of row. 

Late Carrot — Plant in May, June, July. About one hun- 
dred and ten days to maturity. Plants four inches apart, 

84! 



CUES FROM NATURE 

rows a foot and a half apart. Half an ounce of seed for fifty 
feet of row. 

Late Cauliflgweb — Plant in May and June. Ready to 
use in one hundred and twenty-five days. Plants two feet 
apart, rows two feet apart. One-eighth of an ounce of seed 
for fifty feet of row. 

Corn — Plant from the first of May to the middle of July. 
Harvest begins in eighty to ninety days. Plant in hills three 
feet apart each way. A pint of seed for every hundred hills. 

Cucumber — Plant in May and June. Picking begins in 
about seventy days. Plant in hills four feet apart each way. 
Half an ounce of seed for thirty hills. 

Melons — Plant in May and June. Harvest begins in about 
one hundred days. Plant in hills four feet apart each way. 
Half an ounce of seed for thirty hills. 

PuMPKix — Plant in May and June. Ready in about one 
hundred and twenty days. Plant in hills five feet apart each 
way. Plant ten seeds in each hill, but pull all but the three 
healthiest-looking plants from each hill as soon as they appear. 

Crooked-neck Summer Squash — Plant in May, June, July. 
Harvest begins in about seventy days. Plant in hills four feet 
apart each way. Half an ounce of seed for twenty-five hills. 

Winter Squash — The same time, distance and seed allow- 
ances as for pumpkins. 

Eggplant, Peppers and Tomatoes — Buy the plants and set 
them out in the latter part of May. Tomatoes and eggplants 
three feet apart each way; peppers two feet apart each way. 
The harvest should continue through the greater part of July, 
August and September if the right assortments of early and 
late plants are obtained. To raise these three plants from 
seed they must be started under glass in MarclL 



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86 



CHAPTER IX 

A P R I L T HE FIRST WEEK 

Have jou an accumulation of the winter's wood 
ashes and are you doubtful as to the best use to 
which they may be put in the garden? The straw- 
berry bed is hungry for them. They will renew the 
soil's supply of potash and that is a good plant food 
for fruit. 

Rake in the ashes now, or as soon as the ground is 
rakable, and there will be better and larger berries 
and more of them in June. Even a few pounds of 
ashes scattered over an area of twenty square feet 
will be effective, but choose a still day for the work, 
because this fertilizer is too useful to be wasted by 
being blown away. 

Strawberries do not require more plant food in 
the long run for all the various stages of their 
growth than other products of the garden, but they 
want most of it in a comparatively short time, be- 

87 



APRIL — THE FIRST WEEK 

cause the interval between the start of the spring 
growth and the fruiting is brief. The making of 
the berries is a terrific strain on the plant and it 
must be helped. To appreciate what the help 
means, compare the diminutive wild strawberry that 
grows by the wayside without care and the wonder- 
ful cultivated berry of the garden. 

This cultivation of the strawberry has been going 
on now for 260 years and fertilization has been one 
of the chief factors in its development. So no gar- 
dener should neglect his own patch. As already 
said, the wood ashes will provide the potash. A 
small quantity of bone meal — say, a pound to twenty 
square feet — will give the soil what phosphoric acid 
is needed for the plant and even less nitrate of soda 
will provide the needed nitrogen. 

These chemical fertilizers are much easier to 
handle than barnyard manure, quicker in their bene- 
ficial effect on the plants and cost less unless you 
happen to have a horse of your own or a horse-own- 
ing neighbour who has no garden. 

But if the soil of the strawben'y patch is thin — 
that is, lacking in decomposed vegetable matter — it 
is better to use the barn^^ard manure either as a sub- 

88 



APRIL — THE FIRST WEEK 

stitute for the chemicals or in addition to them. 
Only the old manure that is thoroughly rotted should 
be applied, however, as that fresh from the stable 
may be full of weed seeds, and no plant is so helpless 
against weeds, so quickly and easily throttled out 
of existence, as the strawberry. 

If there is no strawberry bed on the place already 
one should be started in April if the ground is suffi- 
ciently free from moisture and in good working con- 
dition. Buy only new plants, less than a year old, 
from first sets rooted from runners. One hundred 
plants altogether, including the early and late fruit- 
ing varieties to give a succession, will make an ample 
patch for one family and from this nucleus the gar- 
dener may go on, year after year, getting new plants 
from the runners of the old and shifting the location 
of the patch every second year at least, to get the 
best results. 

This shifting is to avoid the dangers of plant dis- 
ease from using the same ground for the same thing 
too often. In the case of strawberries the bed may 
be allowed to shift itself in this way: Each plant 
puts out one or more runners and from the end of 
each of these which goes into the ground a new plant 

89 



APRIL — THE FIRST WEEK 

starts. By placing the ends of these runners just 
where the new plants are wanted a new row may be 
grown parallel to the old one and far enough away 
from it to escape any dangers there may be in the 
ground from the old plants. The following season, 
after the space of the first row has been thoroughly 
cleaned, the process may be reversed and the runners 
trained back to the original row. 

For a new patch select ground that has been under 
cultivation during the previous year or two. Soil 
in which com or beans or potatoes have grown is 
best. Avoid sod land by all means, unless it has 
had a great deal of white clover growing with the 
grass ; otherwise the newly tumed-up ground is apt 
to be filled with worms and other pests fatal to good 
strawberry growth. 

There is no way of getting much fruit this sum- 
mer from plants set out this spring. But if you 
wait until fall the crop of next season will not be so 
abundant as from plants set out now. One season's 
preliminary work without fruit is worth while for a 
first-class bed. There are two good ways of plant- 
ing. The first one is to make a hole big enough 
round to hold all the roots freely spread out like the 

90 



APRIL — THE FIRST WEEK 

ribs of an open umbrella. Then take the plant by 
the crown between the thumb and finger, twirl it till 
the roots spread and drop it into place. Planted in 
this manner every root is sure of opportunity to do 
its work and get its share of moisture and plant 
food out of the soil. 

In puchasing the plants, by-the-way, pay more 
attention to their roots than to their leaves. An 
abundance of the former is what is wanted. If the 
leaves are too thick it is even well to pull off a few 
of them to reduce the foliage surface through which 
the moisture can evaporate above ground, robbing 
the roots. 

The second method of planting is quicker and ac- 
complishes the same thing. Shove a spade into the 
ground the full depth of its blade and then pusK 
the handle over, making a V-shaped opening in the 
ground. Spread the roots of the plant fan-fashion 
and hold them against one side of the V while the 
earth is pulled back against them by thrusting the 
spade into the ground just beyond the first opening 
and pulling the handle toward you. This method 
also assures the proper contact of each root and 
rootlet with the earth. 

91 



APRIL — THE FIRST WEEK 

Let that earth be a sandy loam if it is available. 
That is the ideal soil for strawberries, although with 
proper treatment they will grow almost anywhere. 

If there is plenty of room that can be devoted to 
the berries, set them out in hills with rows three feet 
apart and the same distance between, the plants. 
That allows of more thorough cultivation and gives 
each plant a larger share of the moisture and rich- 
ness of the soil. Naturally the berries are larger, 
richer in flavour and more attractive in shape and 
colour. But planting that way is a luxury. 

The usual method and, if space is limited, the only 
sensible way is to plant in rows. Begin by putting 
the plants in a single row, twelve inches apart. 
Have a space of four feet between the rows at the 
outset, for part of that ground is to be filled in with 
new plants from the runners of the old. Let these 
runners take possession of the ground for a foot on 
either side of the original row, making altogether 
what is known as the matted row. Then in turn 
the runners from this can have the ground still left 
and, as soon as this last set of plants is established, 
the original row, which has produced fruit for two 
seasons, can be dug up. 



APRIL — THE FIRST WEEK 

This renews the bed practically within the same 
part of the garden originally devoted to it, and the 
patch may be worked back and forth within that 
area for years if enough fertilizer is put on and if 
sufficient care is taken to keep the ground free from 
pests. One precaution is to cut off all the old leaves 
as soon as fruiting is over, for on this dead foliage 
the injurious insects find their best breeding and 
hiding places. 

Also at the end of the fruit production, the plants 
are usually in great need of weeding and cultivation. 
The earth has been packed by the daily pressure of 
the shoes of the berry pickers and it is just the season 
when weeds are making their greatest strides toward 
taking possession of the garden. Loosen up the 
ground thoroughly and get rid of all vegetation that 
does not belong there. 

All strawberry plants do not produce perfect flow- 
ers — that is, flowers with both the male and female 
organs for propagating themselves — so in every 
patch there must be some perfect plants that the 
pollen from their stamens can fertilize the other 
plants. At least one-fourth of the patch should be 
of the perfect plants scattered among the others. 

93 



APRIL — THE FIRST WEEK 

A mulch must be put on in the fall and kept on 
through the winter. It serves as a protection from 
the cold and so prevents, in great measure, the alter- 
nate freezing and thawing of the ground and the 
consequent heaving of the plants and tearing of the 
roots. In the spring the leaves or straw of this 
mulch retain the moisture in the soil and also prevent 
the weeds from starting. Of course they answer the 
same purpose all through the season, and when the 
berries begin to ripen and bend the vines with their 
weight the mulch keeps the fruit from the ground 
and thus saves many berries from spoiling before 
they can be picked. 

But it is an excellent thing to take this mulch off 
at least once in the spring, give the ground a good 
cultivation with the hoe and then rake the straw 
back, taking care to leave the plants themselves free. 



94 



CHAPTER X 
•It 

A P R I L T HE SECOND WEEK 

Two vegetables that Ever3rinan likes to have on his 
table, in season and out, but which, strangely enough, 
are seldom found in Everyman's Garden, are aspara- 
gus and celery. Why does the average amateur 
leave them out of his plan ? Probably because grow- 
ing them carries him a little beyond the primary 
stage of planting something as simple as the squash 
or beans, and because In things agricultural, more 
than in anything else, matters that he does not know 
about seem too technical and difficult for a layman to 
undertake. 

But the difficulty begins to disappear as soon as 
an actual start is made to have celery and asparagus 
in your own garden. The beginning for both plants 
should be made within the first half of the month of 
April. 

The only objection to asparagus is that you have 
95 



APRIL — THE SECOND WEEK 

to wait so long for results — two years if you set out 
one-year-old roots and three years if you start with 
seed. But the use of the ground is not entirely lost, 
for while Everyman is waiting for his first crop he 
can use the space between the asparagus rows for 
other vegetables. 

Against the single disadvantage of the long wait 
there are many things on the other side. Asparagus 
comes earlier in the season than anj^thing else. It is 
very prolific, and it loses very little of its flavour 
and succulence in being canned in the home kitchen 
for winter use. There is much to be said in its 
favour as a very wholesome article of food. The 
ancient Romans used it as a medicine. And — this 
is the main thing — nothing is more palatable. 

Asparagus is one of the most easy-going, least 
exacting plants in the garden. It will grow and 
even produce fairly good crops on almost any soil if 
it has proper cultivation and enough fertilization, so 
very few gardeners can plead unfitness of ground as 
a sufficient excuse for not having a bed of " grass." 

But, as with everything else, there is the one ideal 
sort of soil best adapted to this particular plant, and 
that one is of the light sandy variety, reasonably rich 

96 



APRIL — THE SECOND WEEK 

in plant food. Furthennore it should be free of 
stones and old roots and all other rubbish that might 
get in the way of the tender sprouts shooting their 
way toward the surface. 

Sunshine, and much of it, is absolutely essential, 
so in selecting the site for the bed attention should 
be given not only to the character of the soil, but to 
the surroundings. No trees, bushes or fences should 
be near enough to throw any shadows on the surface 
of the bed. On the other hand there must be some 
protection from north and east winds. This is best 
obtained by planting on ground with a gentle south- 
erly slope — due south if possible. This slope not 
only serves as a protection from the north wind, but 
affords the maximum amount of sunshine. Another 
device to get the full benefit of the sun's warmth in 
early spring is to run the rows north and south. 

Everyman is justified in hiring a ploughman for 
the main work of making his asparagus bed even if he 
does dig all the rest of the garden himself. Of 
course he can make the asparagus bed with his spade 
if he wants to be very thrifty or has a notion that as 
a matter of sentiment he wants to be able to look 
upon his finished garden and declare proudly that he 

97 



APRIL — THE SECOND WEEK 

did every inch of it himself. But the sentiment must 
have the energetic support of a good strong back in 
this case, and two or three dollars would pay for all 
the work that the man with the plough need be called 
upon to do in the preparation of this part of the 
garden. 

In either case it is necessary to have a trench a 
foot deep and at least a foot wide at the bottom, so 
the many roots radiating from the crown of each 
plant may be spread out well and lie in a natural, 
uncramped position from the outset. The old 
method was to dig the trench a foot and a half deep 
and fill in the bottom to the depth of six inches with 
barnyard manure, cover that with a thin layer of 
earth and then put In the roots. But that Is un- 
necessary and a waste of time, energy and manure, 
because the scientific agricultural experts have dem- 
onstrated that the feeding roots of the asparagus 
plant extend laterally rather than downward and get 
little, if any, benefit from fertilizer placed beneath 
the crowns of the roots — a demonstration for which 
the man who is to do his own work of spading should 
feel very grateful to science. 

The length of the row of course depends on the 
9S 



APRIL — THE SECOND WEEK 

space in the garden that may be devoted to the as- 
paragus bed. Roots should not be set closer than 
eighteen inches apart, and two feet should be the 
minimum distance between the rows. If there is 
plenty of room in the garden the distance between 
the rows may be increased to advantage. However 
a strip ten feet by thirty — that is, five rows, each 
flirty feet long — would afford space for one hun- 
dred roots, an ample patch for the family. If not 
more than half that space were available it would 
still be well worth while to start an asparagus bed. 

Good one-year-old roots may be bought at the 
rate of seventy-five cents a hundred. They will fur- 
nish all the asparagus, cut fresh every morning dur- 
ing the season, that the family can use, with some 
left over for canning. A single bunch of asparagus 
costs about twenty-five cents at the store. 

A new crown grows each year a fraction of an 
inch above the old one, so the underground system 
of the plant is coming nearer the surface all the time. 
As an asparagus bed is good for a dozen years or 
more sufficient depth must be allowed at the outset. 
The only objection to deep planting is that the crop 
is not so early in the first few years, but that can be 

99 



APRIL — THE SECOND WEEK 

ojfFset in part by hoeing out between the rows early 
in the spring so the sun's heat will penetrate to the 
roots more readily and start them into quicker ac- 
tion. After growth starts the earth should be raked 
back where it belongs, making the surface of the 
entire bed level. Ridging up must be resorted to if 
it is Everyman's fancy to raise white asparagus, as 
the earth banked against the spears is what bleaches 
them. For green asparagus this is not necessary. 
To get something from the ground while waiting 
for the first yield of asparagus there is no harm in 
planting some such plant as the pea or bean between 
the rows, especially if enough ground is used to make 
that space three or four feet wide. This will not 
hurt the asparagus roots in the least ; on the con- 
trary it will be a good thing, because the presence of 
the peas or beans will assure more thorough cultiva- 
tion. Asparagus, like everything else in the garden, 
needs a lot of care and the more the bed is hoed the 
better. Also it needs an ample supply of plant food 
or fertilizer. If barnyard manure is used, as it cer- 
tainly should be for at least a part of the fertilizer, 
be sure it is old and thoroughly decomposed. If it is 
fresh it will be too hot, and the young spears coming 

100 



APRIL — THE SECOND WEEK 

up through it will rust. Supplement the barnyard 
manure, thereby decreasing the quantity of it neces- 
sary, by adding wood ashes which are rich in pot- 
ash. 

If these are not available buy a little muriate of 
potash from the seedsman. By the ton it costs 
forty-five dollars, so in small quantities it should not 
cost more than three or four cents a pound. Five 
pounds would be ample for the small asparagus bed 
when used in addition to half a load of barnyard 
manure. To get a perfectly balanced fertilizer for 
asparagus it would be Veil to add ten pounds of phos- 
phate. This costs only about a third as much as 
the potash. For the necessary nitrogen it is safe 
enough to depend on the supply of nitrate contained 
in the manure itself. 

A third possibility is to use chemicals altogether 
in alternate years, or oftener if the soil is already 
sufficiently supplied with humus or organic matter 
such as the straw and other decomposed vegetable 
portion of the manure. This suggestion is offered 
because it is so much easier to obtain and handle the 
chemicals, and so much less in bulk is required. 
Every seedsman carries a special mixture adapted to 

101 



APRIL — THE SECOND WEEK 

the requirements of each variety of plant, and if you 
find you can depend upon him for good seed you may 
take it for granted that his chemicals will be honest 
too. 

The time to fertilize is in the spring and summer 
during the growth of the stalks after the cutting sea- 
son. It is then that the crowns are forming the new 
buds from which the edible sprouts of the next season 
will come, and therefore it is then that the roots need 
and assimilate the- food needed for those sprouts. 

Apply the fertilizer as a surface dressing, not 
directly on top of the rows just above the line of 
crowns, but on either side. Work most of it into 
the soil by raking, but leave some of the manure 
on the surface to serv^e as a mulch to block the weeds 
and prevent the evaporation of moisture. 

In the first two years of bearing do not cut the 
spears for the table for more than three weeks. After 
the bed is well established and thrifty the daily crop 
may be taken for six or seven weeks. When the 
season for cropping is over the tops will quickly 
develop into high, bushy plants and go to- seed. 
Wait until the berries are fully coloured, then cut 
everything down clean, burn the rubbish to get rid 

102 



APRIL — THE SECOND WEEK 

of insects and disease germs, and that finishes the 
business of the asparagus bed for the year. 

A fungous disease, called rust, and the beetle are 
the two chief pests that attack asparagus. To com- 
bat the rust, spray with Bordeaux mixture, with 
Paris green or arsenate of lead added, as soon as the 
cutting season is over, and clean up the ground very 
thoroughly in the fall so as to destroy any infected 
plants and leave no place for pests to winter. To 
get rid of beetles and grubs, dust with fresh lime 
when the morning dew is on the plants. If you have 
chickens turn them loose in the patch and they will 
make short work of the insects. 

BEST SOIL FOR CELEEY. 

To produce celery in the greatest abundance, on a 
market-garden scale, for example, the black boggy 
soil known as " muck " is best ; but to produce the 
plant in small quantities, say an all-winter supply 
for the family, a moist, sandy loam, even a soil with 
lots of clay in it, is better than the muck, because 
celery grown in loam has a finer flavour and keeps 
better. Fortunately Everyman's Garden is more 
apt to be of sand or clay than of muck. 

The time for beginning out-of-door celery work, 
103 



APRIL — THE SECOND WEEK 

either with seed or with plants purchased from the 
seedsman or home-grown under glass, is April. It 
is not too late now to start with seed for next win- 
ter's supply or even for the Thanksgiving dinner. 
But for an early-fall crop the plants must be pur- 
chased in April, if you have not raised them your- 
self. Set the plants six inches apart in rows that 
are three feet apart. If seed is used there must 
be same preliminary work to get good results. In 
the first place do not select celery seed as one of the 
things to economize on. Do not get the cheapest 
sort in the catalogue, but the best, not only because 
of the quality of the plant it will produce but for the 
greater assurance that it will grow. The seed of 
this plant, which is a biennial, producing seed the 
second season and then dying, loses its vitality very 
quickly. It is a waste of time, effort and ground 
space to plant seed more than a year old. 

But even good seed must have the best possible 
conditions under which to begin growth. The fol- 
lowing instructions apply to the preparation of the 
soil, whether the start is made with seeds or plants: 

If the soil contains much clay break it up and im- 
prove its texture by spading or ploughing in a lot of 

104 



APRIL — THE SECOND WEEK 

barnyard manure. A wheelbarrow load for every 
twelve feet of row is about right. If the soil is thin 
and sandy use barnyard manure, too, to furnish the 
required humus. Of course this manure will furnish 
fertilizer as well as improve the mechanical condition 
of the soil, but for a quicker-acting plant food, one 
that will begin to serve the plants from the very out- 
set of their growth, get some chemical fertilizer, 
which may be purchased in small quantities and costs 
but a few cents a pound. 

Potash is the main thing. A mixture containing 
two pounds of potash and a pound each of nitrate of 
soda and phosphoric acid will properly enrich two 
twenty-foot rows. Work it in thoroughly over a 
strip about two feet wide, down the centre of which 
the plants are to be set out at six-inch intervals. 
This fertilizer may be used in addition to the barn- 
yard manure, or without it if the soil is sufficiently 
supplied with humus. 

Another ingredient that will help — it is very nec- 
essary if the ground is sour — is lime. As already 
explained in the third chapter of this book, the test 
for sourness is very simply and accurately made by 
a bit of blue litmus paper that the druggist sells 

105 



APRIL — THE SECOND WEEK 

for a few cents. Touch the paper to the moist- 
ened earth; if it turns red the ground needs lime- 
Another trick that is practicable in a small garden 
and is worth trying is to sprinkle salt along the row 
and work it in — about a pint to every twenty feet. 
This will be absorbed by the celery plants and their 
flavour improved by it. After growth is well under 
way add a little nitrate of soda along either side of 
the row and rake it in. 

So much for the things that should be added to 
the soil. Fully as important is the working of it 
into proper texture. Let the preliminary spading 
or ploughing be deep enough to assure a layer of five 
inches of well-pulverized soil when the preparation 
is completed. Rake or harrow both ways after the 
digging and repeat the process as often as may be — 
the more of that the better — and put on the finish- 
ing touches by smoothing with a board. For the 
seedbed itself put the surface soil through a sieve 
with a reasonably fine mesh. 

Seed may be sowed broadcast in the preliminary 
bed and when the plants appear three weeks later, 
perhaps a little sooner than that, they can be thinned 
out so that each remaining plant will have sufficient 

106 



APRIL — THE SECOND WEEK 

room to make the first month of its growth. After 
that comes the transplanting to permanent rows. 
Tliis extra work of shifting the plants from one place 
to another has a very definite purpose in the care 
of celery. The plant if left to itself puts down a 
very long taproot and almost no lateral-growing 
roots, which are necessary to produce the most de- 
sirable plants. Transplanting serves to break that 
taproot and then, in the new bed, the lateral growth 
begins and makes up for the loss. Of course, you 
can get celery without transplanting, but the other 
way is much better. The seed, which is very small, 
should be covered as lightly as possible. 

Showery, misty sort of weather is the best for seed- 
planting or setting out and transplanting, and if you 
can hit it just right to do the work between two 
gentle showers an excellent start will be made. 
When transplanting dig up the seedlings in such a 
way that the earth will cling to the roots. Moisture 
is essential. To make sure of it firm the soil well 
about the plants and then cover with a mulch of 
loose dry earth, of straw or old leaves or manure. 
The manure is best, but care should be taken to keep 
it^ as well as all other dirt, out of the heart of the 

107 



APRIL — THE SECOND WEEK 

plant itself. Sprinkle the mulch and let the water 
percolate through to the soil and then to the roots. 
This should be done after sunset. Don't overdo this 
moistening, however, for that would cause what is 
known in celery as " damping off." No artificial 
watering should be given after the crop has got a 
good start. 

Deep cultivation after the plants have started 
must be avoided, for those lateral roots, already re- 
ferred to, grow very near the surface and must not 
be disturbed. A shallow-working scuffle hoe is a 
good tool for the weeding and a light raking is suf- 
ficient to keep the surface of the soil fine and loose 
and therefore a bar to the evaporation of moisture. 

Blanching of celery is not a difficult or a mysteri- 
ous thing at all. Nevertheless it is the barrier that 
needlessly keeps this very desirable plant out of so 
many family gardens. It is an added process, some- 
thing different from the simple picking of other veg- 
etables, and so the amateur is apt to hold the 
mistaken notion that celery raising is only for the 
professional. 

Blanching of the celery is not primarily to make it 
white, although that, too, is an advantage, but rather 

108 



APRIL — THE SECOND WEEK 

to improve the edible quality of the plant. Wild 
celery is a tough plant with woody, fibrous stalks of 
rank flavour that nobody would care to munch. 
Somebody once discovered, probably by accident, 
that excluding the light from the plant did away 
with this woodiness and produced the crisp, tender 
celery that is so appetizing. Incidentally the ex- 
clusion of the light prevents the plants from becom- 
ing green, as darkness always destroys the natural 
colouring matter of leaves. 

This blanching part of the work may be done with 
boards or earth equally well. If boards are used 
get old ones, as new lumber is apt to give a disagree- 
able flavour to the plant. Tilt the tops of the boards 
toward each other as far as the tops of the plants 
will permit, thus forming an A-tent-like contrivance, 
open a little at the top. The upper edges can be 
held together by nailing bits of lath across. Throw 
some earth against the boards on the outside to pre- 
vent light from creeping in through the cracks under 
the bottom edges. 

Another excellent way — the best way for a small 
number of plants if Everyman wants to spend a 
little money to get perfection — is to use short 

109 



APRIL — THE SECOND WEEK 

lengths of earthenware pipe, the ordinary farm-drain 
tile, with an inside diameter of four inches. 

Slip a tile over each plant, after it is nearly 
grown, something like a flower vase without any bot- 
tom, with the top leaves projecting in a green bunch 
and the stalks whitening below entirely out of the 
light. Use the unglazed pipe for this purpose, be- 
cause the rapid evaporation from the dull surface 
keeps the inclosed plant cool and crisp and gives you 
a ripened product that is unsurpassed. 

The simplest, cheapest way is to bank the stalks 
with earth, after tying the leaves together, not too 
tightly, so that the growth mil be compact and as a 
precaution against dirt getting into the heart of the 
plant and rotting it. Banking with earth requires 
spade work for the most part, but there should be 
some heaping up and patting by hand to see that all 
the outer surfaces of all the stalks are covered. 

Do not try to use straw or leaves for blanching 
purposes because they are in a constant process of 
decomposition and may rot the celery. They are 
sure to give it a musty, disagreeable flavour. 

The winter supply may be kept where the plants 
are grown by covering sufficiently with earth, with 

110 



APRIL — THE SECOND WEEK 

some manure over that, to keep out the frost. Then 
dig it out, a bunch or two at a time, as it is needed. 

One of the commonest diseases of the celery crop 
is " damping off," caused by a fungus that attacks 
young plants and rots them at the point of contact 
with the earth. Careless watering at the outset is 
the cause of this. One effective way of avoiding the 
trouble is to start the seed in shallow boxes instead 
of in the open ground. Bore a few holes in the bot- 
tom and set the box in a tray of water. This assures 
the roots of plenty of moisture without danger of 
rotting or damping off the young leaves. 

Prevention rather than cure must be provided 
against celery blight because if it gets a start, as it 
is apt to in long-continued hot, sticky weather, the 
plant will droop, just as humans do in the same sort 
of weather, and either die or grow into a very poor 
quality of celery. Spraying with Bordeaux mix- 
ture containing a weak ammoniacal solution of cop- 
per once a fortnight will ward off this disease. 

Grasshoppers, celery caterpillars, celery-leaf tiers, 
and the tarnished plant bug are the insect enemies. 
The tiers are a double nuisance, not only eating the 
leaves but spinning webs about them. The tiers and 

111 



APRIL — THE SECOND WEEK 

caterpillars are best destroyed by hand-picking. 
Paris green, mixed with bran and scattered on the 
ground, will put an end to the grasshoppers. 

THE RAISING OF ONIONS. 

Onions raised this summer will cure all of next 
winter's colds, tone up the family health in general 
and be an important and pleasing addition to the 
food supply, so they should find good room in Every- 
man's Garden. 

There are several " don'ts " that apply to this 
vegetable. In the first place it is not a rugged gar- 
den pioneer, ready to thrive, as corn or potatoes 
would, on newly turned-under sod. For that reason 
put the onion row where there was a hoed crop last 
season. But do not put it where onions themselves 
were for this is one of the vegetables that must have 
rotation to save it from disease and insects. 

Composition of the soil is not so important as its 
mechanical condition. Sandy loam is best, but 
onions may be raised profitably on heavy clay soil if 
a lot of decayed leaves or barnyard manure is worked 
into it to break it up and make it more porous. If 
your garden happens to be a piece of old, reclaimed 

112 



APRIL -THE SECOND WEEK 

swampland, where there is a muck soil, you can raise 
onions there, too, after thorough cultivation and an 
application of lime and potash. 

Let the preparation of the ground be sufficient to 
give a four-inch layer of well-pulverized earth, as 
smooth and free of weeds and rubbish as if you were 
preparing a seedbed for flowers. If this soil is well 
supplied with humus substitute commercial fertilizer 
for manure. Any mixture sold for potato fertiliza- 
tion will do, but a combination specially adapted for 
onions can be made at home for very little money. 

Get half a pound of sulphate of ammonia, two 
pounds of muriate of potash, four pounds of acid 
phosphate, and a pound of cottonseed meal. Mix 
them/'weU with a hoe and rake into the ground. Two 
pounds of such a mixture would be ample for two 
fifty-foot rows of onions. 

It is simpler for the amateur to buy sets — a pint 
of reds and a pint of whites make a good combination 
and will be enough for two thirty-foot rows. The 
sets cost about thirty cents a quart. Place them 
three inches apart and there should be a foot between 
rows. 

If seed is used, an ounce, costing from twenty to 
113 



APRIL — THE SECOND WEEK 

thirty cents, will be sufficient for one hundred feet of 
planting. Cover the seed with half an inch of soil. 
Sow thickly and thin out to three-inch spacing after 
the plants have started. 



114 



CHAPTER XI 

APRIL THE THIRD WEEK 

There are so many excellent reasons why the ama- 
teur gardener should raise his own small fruits as 
well as his vegetables that it would take too much of 
his time from out-of-door work to read them all. He 
had better read briefly how to raise the fruits — and 
then get at it. So to save time the reasons may be 
grouped as economic, gastronomic and aesthetic. 

As to the first, fruit costs more at the store than 
vegetables, and it costs almost as little to raise. 
Fresh fruit is not only a delightful but a most health- 
ful thing for the family to eat in abundance. If it 
has been raised in some other man's garden there is 
very little freshness about it after it has reached 
your table by way of the commission man and the re- 
tail dealer. And, aesthetically, fruit is the one thing 
needed to make Everyman's Garden beautiful, to give 
tone and colour to the vegetable patch, while the 

115 



APRIL — THE THIRD WEEK 

growing of it is about as interesting a part of his 
enterprise as Everyman can tackle. 

Also it is easier to keep the women of an average 
family enthusiastic about the garden throughout the 
season if there is fruit in it. It appeals to their love 
of colour and their feminine weakness for desserts. 
Many a daughter who would scorn to hoe the pota- 
toes would like nothing better than to be caught with 
a camera while picking rich red clusters of currants. 

So much for the reasons for having a fruit garden. 
Now for the facts. If possible select a part of your 
garden that has a good loamy soil for the fruits. If 
the soil is not right you can do a great deal to make 
it so by plenty of cultivation and the digging in of 
barnyard manure. The best way, practically the 
only safe way, is to plant the fruits on ground that 
has been used for at least one year for vegetables — 
such crops as corn or potatoes or beans that have 
been well hoed. This assures the fruit of soil that 
is rid of the annual weed seeds and the perennials, 
such as the various kinds of grass, and that is also 
comparatively free from insect larvae. It also pro- 
vides soil that is mellow from cultivation. 

If you have your choice between a piece of ground 
116 



APRIL — THE THIRD WEEK 

that is light and sandy and another that is heavier 
because of the presence of clay, give the brambles — 
that is, the various kinds of raspberries, the black- 
berries and dewberries — the sandy place and put the 
currants and gooseberries where the clay loam is, for 
such is the ideal arrangement so far as soil character 
is concerned. But that is a fine point which should 
not cause any loss of sleep or time in getting ready to 
set the fruit out. For the bush fruits will thrive in 
almost any soil if they are set out properly and get 
decent care thereafter. Lack of moisture is one of 
the few things that bush fruits will not stand. 
Neither will they stand an excess of moisture. 
Standing water on the surface is fatal ; so is a soggy, 
wet soil down about the roots, so drainage is an im- 
portant matter to look after. Fortunately it is a 
very simple one, so don't spoil what might otherwise 
be a very good fruit patch by failure to dig a drain- 
age ditch if it is needed. A short line of drain tile 
may prove a good investment. 

The more time and care devoted to the prepara- 
tion of the soil now the better will be the fruit crop, 
in quantity and quality, when the bushes come into 
bearing. If you are very particular and very deter- 

117 



APRIL — THE THIRD WEEK 

mined to have about the best fruit garden in your 
neighbourhood you will resort to the extreme method 
of trenching the ground to a depth of two feet. 

That means digging a trench two feet deep at one 
end of the fruit garden, taking the earth to the other 
end, then digging another trench beside the first, 
shoveling the earth into the first, digging a third and 
putting the earth into the second, and so on away 
across the patch selected for the fruits. The earth 
that has been taken from the first trench at one end 
finally goes into the last trench dug at the other end, 
thus completing the process. 

The result of all this is to give you a deeply dug 
and thoroughly stirred soil in which the roots will 
have the very best opportunity for growth. Of 
course if you find a stratum of pure clay or sand a 
foot or so down you will not bring it to the surface. 
In that case shift the topscril for as great a depth as 
it is good and treat the subsoil by breaking it up and 
working into it a lot of manure. For that matter 
some manure of the well-rotted sort should be worked 
into the whole bed, topsoil and all. The only excuses 
for not using barnyard manure liberally in the prep- 
aration of the soil is that the soil may be well sup- 

118 



APRIL — THE THIRD WEEK 

plied with humus at the outset and that chemical 
fertilizers are to be applied later as the more conven- 
ient way of enriching the soil after the plants are 
established. 

It would be useless here to recommend particular 
varieties of bush fruits. Selections should be made 
with reference to the family's likes, in accordance 
with Everyman's knowledge of what has done well in 
the neighbourhood, and with the advice of the nearest 
reliable nurseryman. FurtheiTnore, names mean 
much less as applied to bush fruits than they do in 
the case of trees. There is, for example, a late- 
fruiting variety of raspberry which an Eastern nur- 
seryman has exploited of recent years under a very 
hifalutin name at fruit shows and in catalogues and 
for which he has charged a very stiff price. But 
that very same fruit, under various commoner names, 
is to be had from nurserymen throughout the country 
at a much more reasonable price. So the best way 
to order your plants is to describe to the dealer just 
what you want and then trust to his honesty. 

The dewberry is one of the brambles that may 
have a place in the fruit garden, but go light on that. 
It isn't much of a fruit at best, is an uncertain pro- 

119 



APRIL — THE THIRD WEEK 

ducer, bears a small fruit and a big thorn that makes 
working about it rough and painful. Its only ad- 
vantages are that it bears earlier fruit than the 
blackberry bush and will grow on the poorest sort of 
soil. One or two bushes, for the sake of the experi- 
ment and to have the satisfaction of a full fruit list 
in the garden, are about all that you should fuss 
with. Put the plants three feet apart. 

Blackberries require more room than anything else 
in the bush fruit plantation. They make the best 
showing when planted in hills six feet apart each way, 
but that requires more room than is available on the 
small place without crowding out something else 
equally good. Give each plant four feet, and if pos- 
sible have them in rows six feet apart. Or they may 
be planted in double rows one foot apart, six feet 
between rows. They should be planted early in the 
spring. Set the roots in the soil four inches deep 
and cut the tops down to within a foot of the ground. 
For the first year do not allow more than five new 
canes to grow, and after that determine the number 
solely by the character of the growth — that is, cut 
out all that are not healthy and vigorous in appear- 
ance. Get rid of the superfluous suckers as they 

120 



APRIL — THE THIRD WEEK 

appear. Remove the old canes and cut back the 
branches for half their growth each spring. The 
plants should yield good crops for seven years or 
more if they receive proper care. 

For the raspberry follow the same methods as for 
blackberries, except that the spacing should be three 
feet between bushes and four feet between rows. 

Currants and gooseberries may be considered to- 
gether so far as their needs are concerned. Get two- 
year-old plants, with plenty of good roots, and plant 
them early in the season. Both these berries require 
heavier, moister soil than the blackberries, a fact to 
be remembered in planting the fruit garden if the 
patch offers any variet}^ of soil. Space the currants 
and gooseberries the same as raspberries. 

Prune in the fall or early the following spring, 
taking out all the old branches and whatever new 
ones do not look promising, and cut back any growth 
that seems to shoot up too fast and get ahead of 
the average development of the entire bush, for the 
plant should be kept symmetrical. Cultivate with 
great care near the plants, for the roots grow very 
close to the surface, so the hoe, if used too vigorously, 
will cut them off. 

121 



APRIL — THE THIRD WEEK 

All these bush plants may be had at the rate of a 
dollar a dozen or less. 

Have the ground prepared before the plants are 
delivered, either by the trenching method or by a 
thorough spading, supplemented by a fining of the 
surface soil with the rake. Also have the holes dug 
at proper intervals, big enough so that the roots 
may be well spread out, without any twisting or 
cramping. 

If there must be some delay between the arrival 
of the plants and tjieir setting out see to it that they 
are heeled into moist ground — that is, bury the 
roots temporarily in a trench to prevent their dry- 
ing out. This precaution will go a long way in the 
starting of healthy plants. Another device that will 
help in the same way is to dip the roots in water 
or, better still, in thin mud before planting. This 
will assure good moisture at the start and hasten 
the process of becoming well rooted in the new 
ground. Cut the bushes back at planting time, and 
before cold weather sets in cover the ground with a 
heavy mulch of straw or manure to prevent the heav- 
ing of the soil and plants by alternating thawing 
and freezing. 

1S2 



APRIL — THE THIRD WEEK 

Through the summer watch the leaves of the cur- 
rant bushes. If they blister and shrivel up and turn 
red look on the under sides and you will probably 
find a lot of green lice. Dissolve a pound of whale- 
oil soap in five gallons of water and spray the foliage, 
being sure to get the mixture on the under side of 
the leaves w^here the lice are. Another remedy for 
currants is spraying with a strong solution of to- 
bacco extract. 

The midge and the gooseberry fruit worm attack 
gooseberries, causing them to drop from the vines. 
Spray the bushes, as soon as the fruit begins to en- 
large, with Bordeaux mixture or the summer dilution 
of lime-sulphur — that is, one to thirty — with half 
a pound of arsenate of lead dissolved in every fifteen 
gallons. 

Examine the raspberry canes very carefully 
through June and July to guard against the cane 
borers. Cut off all damaged or withered tips below 
the point of trouble. Above that point there is 
probably a borer inside. It is in June that the 
beetles girdle the canes, making two rings about an 
inch apart, between which they lay the eggs that 
produce the borers. 

123 



APRIL — THE THIRD WEEK 

That is about all there is to the process of start- 
ing the plantation of bush fruits ; but remember that 
jou have got something that will become nothing 
more than a thorny nuisance and waste of ground if 
you do not take care of it in the seasons to come. It 
will require cultivating and fertilizing and irrigating 
just as much as the vegetable garden, and when the 
proper time comes the puzzling question of pruning 
will have to be tackled. 

By the term " small fruits " is meant the bush or 
vine growing berries — blackberries, raspberries, 
currants and gooseberries. The strawberry bed is 
considered separately in chapter nine. Tech- 
nically grapes are not included in this classification, 
but Everyman surely should include them in his gar- 
den and directions for starting the vines are in 
chapter twenty-seven. 

Here are chemical fertilizing formulas of trifling 
cost, easy to obtain and mix, for the bush fruit gar- 
den. They are figured for a patch twenty feet 
square. A little arithmetic will enable the amateur 
gardener to get the proportionate quantity for larger 
or smaller areas: 

Currants axd Gooseberries — One pound of nitrate of 
124 



APRIL — THE THIRD WEEK 

soda, two pounds of bone meal, a pound and a half of muriate 
of potash. 

Blackberries — A pound and a half of nitrate of soda, four 
pounds and a half of bone meal, a pound of muriate of potash. 

Raspberries — One pound of nitrate of soda, six pounds of 
bone meal, two pounds of muriate of potash. 



185 



CHAPTER XII 

A P B I L T KE THIRD WEEK, 

CONTINUED 

About this time of year a tree agent will rap at your 
front door and urge j^ou to buy fruit trees. The 
probability is that he is honest, believes what he 
tells you about the excellence of liis wares, and is 
trying to make a living. But be firm and send him 
away without an order, or if he overcomes your judg- 
ment give him a small order and when the trees come 
cut off the roots and use the tops as brush for your 
pea vines. Don't set them out for fruit-bearing 
purposes in the years to come. 

When rid of the agent go to the nearest nursery- 
man who has been established in the business a long 
time and buy your trees direct of him, after telling 
him just what you want and getting his personal 
assurance that what he sells you is true to name or 
type, that it is free from disease, and that it comes 
from good-bearing stock. 

126 



APRIL — THE THIRD WEEK 

It helps to do this even if you are an amateur and 
obliged to depend upon the word of the grower. It 
is not so much a question of the honesty of the nur- 
seryman as of his interest. The honesty can be 
taken for granted, but he will use more care in se- 
lecting for you after a personal talk, and this method 
is surely worth the time and the carfare you put 
into it. As for the cost, the price you will pay for 
a single tree or by the dozen is much less than what 
you would have to pay the travelling agent, who fre- 
quently knows nothing about trees. 

Remember that in setting out fruit trees you are 
embarking upon a venture that will last for years. 
It is much more serious than planting a row of corn 
— hence the necessity for Everyman's starting 
right on his miniature orchard of one or a dozen 
trees. 

It is taken for granted that he will in the course 
of his gardening pass through the small-fruit stage, 
and after establishing his berry patch will begin to 
think of trees. He ought to anyway. 

If he has plenty of room the standard trees will 
do. If space is limited there are the dwarf trees, 
taking up very little room, bearing much sooner 

127 



APRIL — THE THIRD WEEK 

than big trees, and yielding, in some cases, a better 
quality, though the same variety of fruit that the 
standards bear. 

So far as apples and pears are concerned it is 
safe to say that the dwarf trees will better meet the 
requirements of Everyman and his suburban prop- 
erty than the big ones. But he may have the Bald- 
win or the Northern Spy or any other variety that 
he may desire just the same. A dwarf fruit tree is 
simply one that has been made up by the combina- 
tion of a scion from a tree bearing the sort of fruit 
desired and a root of some slower-growing tree. 

For instance the nurseryman gets his dwarf pears 
by taking a scion from an ordinary or standard pear 
tree — Bartlett or any other variety — and graft- 
ing it on a quince root. The union between the two 
is perfect. The slow-growing quince root will never 
allow the pear top to reach regular pear-tree size, 
but the fruit will be of the same size and always true 
to type. 

The dwarf apple, for the purposes of the commer- 
cial nurseryman, is obtained as a rule by grafting 
the various scions of standard trees on the roots of 
the Paradise apple. 

1^8 



APRIL — THE THIRD WEEK 

One great advantage of the dwarf apple tree to 
Everyman, who may want to be a real farmer and 
move to a bigger place eight or ten years from now, 
is that it will bear in two or three j^ears, whereas 
fruit cannot be expected from a standard apple tree 
inside of seven years. This material shortening of 
the waiting period applies to all dwarfed trees. 

Stunted peach trees, only waist high, that look 
more like bushes than trees, and bear wonderful fruit, 
are obtained by grafting on plum roots. An even 
more diminutive peach tree is had by using the root 
of the dwarf sand cherry. This dwarf sand cherry 
is also the root used in making vest-pocket plum 
trees. 

Dwarf pears of nearly all the popular varieties 
can be bought of any first-class nursery for twenty 
or twenty-five cents each, with material reduction 
on lots of ten or more trees. The same nurseryman 
probably will sell you dwarf apples at twenty-five 
cents a tree. 

These two — apple and pear — are the only fruits 
that the American nurserymen have so far made 
a business of dwarfing. To get the peaches and 
plums in the stunted form requires something of a 

1^9 



APRIL — THE THIRD WEEK 

hunt or a little experimental work with grafting on 
your own account. 

Among the obvious advantages of this dwarf fruit 
is the ease in getting at all parts of the trees, with- 
out the aid of poles or ladders, to prune and spray 
and pick the fruit. Furthermore the trees may be 
shaped and trained almost as readily as a grape- 
vine or a wistaria. Pears and peaches can be made 
to grow against a wall or trellis at the end of the 
garden. Dwarf apples, kept down to single stems 
■or cordons and allowed to go straight up or bent 
into horizontal growth, can be converted into a per- 
fect fruit-bearing screen. Apple trees grown in 
this fashion may be set as close as two feet apart. 
Apples allowed to take bush form will thrive with 
only seven-foot intervals. And the same is true of 
all the other dwarf fruit. So no matter how small 
his space Everyman may have some sort of an 
orchard. 

As to soil requirements, the need of careful culti- 
vation and pruning, and the absolute necessity for 
spraying, the rules for the dwarf fruit plantation 
are practically the same as for the orchard of big 
trees. 

130 



APRIL — THE THIRD WEEK 

Perhaps you own the place, have lots of room, 
expect to live on it all jour life and leave it to your 
children, and have an old-fashioned notion that an 
apple tree should be big enough to hang a swing 
from and that fruit tastes better and more natural 
if you have to climb for it. In that case two or 
three different varieties of apple trees, standard size, 
a pear, a cherry, a plum and a quince, and three 
or four peach trees, early, medium and late varieties, 
are what you want. Standard trees live longer than 
the dwarfs. 

The most successful orchards are those grown on 
former forest land. That is not so hopeless a state- 
ment for Everyman as it sounds at first, inasmuch 
as many a suburban place is on the site of what was 
timber land a generation ago. 

But to be more specific, the peach does best on 
sandy loam, the pear and apple prefer a day loam, 
and the plum will grow in heavier soil than any of 
the other fruit trees. Nevertheless all these fruits 
will thrive, especially in small, well-cherished family 
orchards, on any reasonably good soil, so the naming 
of the ideal conditions need not deter Everyman 
whose place does not quite measure up to them. 

131 



APRIL — THE THIRD WEEK 

One old-fasliioned notion that must be discarded 
at the outset is that fruit trees will take care of 
themselves when once stuck into the ground, that an 
orchard needs no cultivation, and that for some queer 
reason the land selected for fruit growing may be 
expected to produce its crop and a crop of grass 
or weeds or vegetables at the same time. That is 
all wrong, but it is the one fallacy — next to the one 
that hens need only corn — that the average farmer 
is most persistent in sticking to. 

Prepare the ground in the first place as carefully 
as you would that of the vegetable garden, only 
plow or spade deeper. Cultivate the young orchard 
until the middle of August and then sow crimson 
clover in it, to be ploughed under next April. This 
is to stock the soil with humus or rotting vegetable 
matter and to furnish an ample suppl}- of nitrogen 
for the wood growth without paying the price of 
expensive commercial nitrates. For the rest of the 
fertilizing use manure and wood ashes or some other 
supply of potash. Without potash there can be no 
fruit. 

If there is any difference in the lay of the land 
give the apple trees the coldest, most exposed posi- 

132 



APRIL — THE THIRD WEEK 

tions and the peaches the warmest and most sheltered. 

Apple trees — we are not talking about the 
dwarfs now — should be twenty feet apart. The 
rule for a commercial orchard is forty feet, but in 
the back-yard plantation, where there will be plenty 
of individual care for each tree, closer planting may 
be allowed and the trees can be pruned so they will 
not interfere with one another. The peaches should 
have at least twelve feet, as against the fifteen or 
eighteen of big plantations. 

At the nursery get one-year-old trees, true to 
name and of good shape and size. Have the ground 
prepared and the holes dug before the trees arrive 
so there will be no delay during which the roots can 
dry out. If it is not possible to plant as soon as 
they come lay them in a trench and cover the roots 
with moist earth. 

Pruning is a problem that lasts all through the 
life of a fruit tree, but it is never more important 
than when the trees first arrive from the nursery. 
In digging them out of the nursery rows some of 
the larger roots have been broken and many of the 
fine feeding roots and rootlets have been torn. This 
is inevitable, but it does no harm if the knife is used 

133 



APRIL — THE THIRD WEEK 

skillfully. There has been no corresponding damage 
to the top part of the tree in the digging at the 
nursery, so, as received by Everyman, the tree is 
out of balance — too much branch to be supported 
properly by the remaining root system at the be- 
ginning of growth in his orchard. So the main stem 
of the tree must be cut down — to two feet for 
peaches and plums ; to three feet for pears and 
apples. Furthermore the side branches must be 
trimmed off — cut off entirely on the new peach 
trees and to within a few inches of the main stem on 
apples and pears. 

This cutting back of the main stem is not only 
to relieve the roots of too much strain, but also for 
the all-important forming of the head of the tree 
and determining its future form. The lower that 
head is formed, the easier it is going to be later 
on to gather fruit, to spray and to prune the tree. 
Also the tree is going to save itself by its own shade 
from the dangers of sun scald, and it is going 
to be better prepared to stand up against heavy 
winds. 

Do not leave more than four side branches ; three 
are better. They should grow, of course, in differ- 

134 



APRIL — THE THIRD WEEK 

ent directions and should not start from the same 
level on the main stem. If they do the danger of 
splitting off under pressure of wind or the weight 
of a big fruit crop is greatly increased. 

The roots must be pruned too, to the extent of 
cutting off all broken or torn ends. Then see to 
it that the roots left are well spread out in the hole. 
Hold the tree upright as well-pulverized earth is 
shovelled back into the hole and joggle it up and 
down so that the soil will fill in all the cavities and 
crevices about the roots and rootlets. There must 
be no air spaces left. As each tree is thus set, firm 
the soil about it with your foot, just as you would 
firm the earth above a row of garden seed, and then 
scatter over the top a handful of loose soil to form 
an earth mulch to keep the moisture underground 
about the roots where it belongs. 

Pruning and spraying — two very essential oper- 
ations in the successful growing of tree fruits — are 
usually associated with the idea of cold weather, as 
the work is best done in the dormant season. That 
is true enough of the heavy pruning and reforming 
of trees and of the spraying for scale, which unfor- 
tunately is the only spraying many fruit growers 

135 



APRIL — THE THIRD WEEK 

seem to think is necessary. But much effective work 
can be done in June with both knife and pump. 

For the knife, however, substitute the thumb for 
the greater part of the cleaning on small fruit trees. 
Simply rub off the new leaf or tender sprout as soon 
as it shows on trunk or branch at a point where new 
growth is not wanted. A minute or two of thumb 
pruning on each young fruit tree now and then in 
the summer effects two great economies — it saves 
hours of heavy pruning with knife or shears next 
year when the sprout has developed into a branch 
or twig that is not wanted and, what is more to the 
point so far as the welfare and future productivity 
of the tree are concerned, this getting rid of un- 
necessary growth at its very start saves energy and 
plant food to go into the development of the wood, 
foliage and fruit that are wanted. For example, 
the so-called suckers that grow on neglected fruit 
trees, sapping their strength and yielding no return, 
would never come if the summer pruning was as thor- 
ough as it should be. 

This applies particularly to the apple and peach 
trees. It is seldom the custom to prune cherries or 
plums in summer and they require very little cutting 

136 



APRIL — THE THIRD WEEK 

in winter; but pears are apt to throw out suckers 
that should be cut off. 

With the peaches and apples the thing may be 
overdone. On trees set out this spring it is better, 
perhaps, to eliminate the summer pruning altogether, 
provided the trees were properly cut back and 
trimmed when they were set out. The young trees 
need about all the foliage they can produce to sup- 
plement the work of the new root system in giving 
the whole plant a good, first-year start. But here 
again the amateur, wrestling with his first fruit- 
tree problem, must use some judgment. Suppose, 
for example, the new tree is making good growth in 
leaf and new wood at the top and a branch starts 
out from the trunk at the ground, as frequently 
happens. It is obvious that that branch should be 
cut off, because it will simply be a nuisance later on. 

At the end of the first year's growth take a two- 
foot rule and measure all the new twigs on your 
young peach tree. If they total up three hundred 
or four hundred inches there has been good, healthy 
development, indicative of proper care and fertiliza- 
tion and correct soil conditions. In the second year 
thumb pruning may be freely indulged in, and much 

137 



APRIL — THE THIRD WEEK 

done hy it toward shaping the tree as it should grow 

— opened up enough inside to let the sunlight reach 
all the fruit to colour it, not too high for conven- 
ience and thoroughness in spraying and for ease in 
picking, and without horizontal branches so low or 
far-reaching as to interfere with thorough cultiva- 
tion close to the tree. These suggestions apply to 
the small fruit plantation as well as to the large 
commercial orchard. 

Winter spraying of fruit trees, as already said, 
is primarily for the San Jose scale, although it helps 
the general health of the trees. It should be done 
with lime-sulphur in the proportion of one to nine 

— that is, in every ten quarts of the apphed mixture 
there should be nine quarts of water and one quart 
of the lime-sulphur. 

Then comes the blossom spraying to get rid of 
the curculio. This should be with a solution of 
arsenate of lead in water, in the proportion of a 
pound of the lead paste to sixty quarts of water. 
Apply this to peach and apple trees when the petals 
are falling. 

Aphlds or plant lice are best controlled by a spray 
of kerosene emulsion — a useful thing to use for 

138 



APRIL — THE THIRD WEEK 

various troubles of fruit trees, including the pear 
tree psylla in June. You can make this for your- 
self very easily. Take half a pound of fish-oil soap 
— formerly known as whale oil — and dissolve it in 
a gallon of water. Then put it with two gallons of 
kerosene. Ordinary stirring with a stick will not 
cause a sufficiently thorough and even mixture, but 
this difficulty is overcome by pumping in a lot of air 
and churning the soap water and kerosene together. 
Take an ordinary bicycle pump and put the end of 
the pipe into the liquid. 

Scab and brown rot, which attack plums, apples 
and peaches, can be controlled by summer spraying 
with Bordeaux mixture or the kerosene emulsion. 
Brown rot also attacks the cherry and this tree should 
receive the same treatment. 

A beetle, light brown in colour and about a quar- 
ter of an inch long, called the quince curculio, at- 
tacks the fruit for which it is named. It punctures 
the fruit, making it knotty and wormy. Spread a 
sheet on the ground under the tree and then shake 
the tree. Many of the bugs will fall on to the sheet 
so they can be gathered up and destroyed. The 
spray remedy for this quince-tree trouble is Bordeaux 

139 



APRIL — THE THIRD WEEK 

or arsenate of lead, the same proportions as given 
above for peach and apple, used after the fruit is set. 

For leaf spot and fruit rot of plums spray with 
Bordeaux, not only when the blossoms fall but again 
when the fruit is about two-tliirds grown. Even 
then there is bound to be some spoiling of the fruit, 
especially in a season of much muggy weather, be- 
cause the plum is the most difficult of all the tree 
fruits to pull through in good condition. 

For tree fruits dig the following fertilizer mix- 
tures into the soil within a radius of four or five feet 
about the trees : 

For apples, pears and quinces — one pound of 
nitrate of soda, seven pounds of bonemeal, two 
pounds of muriate of potash. 

For cherries and plums — half a pound of nitrate 
of soda, five pounds of bonemeal, one pound of 
muriate of potash. 

For peaches — one pound of nitrate of soda, four 
pounds of bonemeal, two pounds of muriate of pot- 
ash. 

Take a look at the map of the United States and 
see where your garden is with reference to latitude. 
If you are south of the thirty-sixth parallel the pos- 

140 



APRIL — THE THIRD WEEK 

sibilities of your fruit plantation are greater than 
those of jour brother gardener farther north. You 
can amuse yourself by trying unusual fruits. There 
is the pawpaw for instance. It is a low-growing tree 
of beautiful foliage, has large purple- and-white flow- 
ers and bears a very aromatic fruit, which you do 
not like at first but take to later on. This fruit 
thrives best in rich, moist soil. It has to be propa- 
gated from seed, as any other method is uncertain. 
Juice of both fruit and leaves makes a fine sauce that 
is much relished when used with meats. 

The loquat will grow down South, too, all through 
the Gulf States. It is a tree that ordinarily attains 
a height of about ten feet, blooms anywhere from 
August to December and matures its clusters of 
yellow, pear-shaped and very acid fruits in the 
spring. 

Persimmons may be made to grow in the open 
as far north as the thirty-eighth degree of latitude. 
Plant the seeds in the fall just as you would plant 
a peach pit, and transplant the young trees the fol- 
lowing fall. The persimmon requires a warm soil 
of good loam. 

The pomegranate, not hardy north of the thirty- 
141 



APRIL — THE THIRD WEEK , 

fourth parallel, may be propagated from hard-wood 
cuttings placed in the open ground in February or 
from new wood cut and planted out in the summer. 
This tree will do as well in a hedge as growing by 
itself, and thus serve the double purpose of decora- 
tion and fruit producing. 



14g 



CHAPTER XIII 



APRIL THE FOURTH WEEK 

Failure to make lettuce head up is one of the most 
frequent dauses of disappointment in the small gar- 
den. Selection of the right variety and the observ- 
ance of one or two very simple principles of vegetable 
growth will overcome the difficulty. There are 
numerous varieties that will form compact, cabbage- 
like heads and have white, crisp hearts under proper 
conditions. 

Every seed grower and experimenter in plant 
propagation is at work on the problem all the time to 
get new sorts. Sometimes they will advertise them 
and boom them too soon, before the habit of the va- 
riety is so firmly established by several generations of 
even performance that even the amateur cannot fail. 
So it Is much better for that amateur, especially in the 
matter of lettuce, to stick to a standard variety, 
something that all the seedsmen put well toward the 

143 



APRIL — THE FOURTH WEEK 

top of their list and, when you pin them down to it, 
recommend with even more assurance than their own 
pet specialties. 

One such standard is Big Boston, a lettuce variety 
that can be recommended by any disinterested guide 
to the amateur because all seed stores have it. It 
is the one variety that the writer has never failed to 
head in several different kinds of soil. It is the let- 
tuce that the United States Government, through the 
Department of Agriculture, talks about as the surest 
sort to form a close head. Furthermore it is the best 
to raise from seed planted in the open ground, the 
custom of most amateurs, without the aid of glass or 
transplanting from a preliminary seedbed. 

So if you failed last season try Big Boston this. 
With the right sort planted, the next thing to bear 
in mind is that lettuce to be well grown and to make 
good eating in the salad must be quickly grown. It 
should be ready for the table in eight or nine weeks. 
That means plenty of moisture and an abundance 
of plant food and good cultivation very frequently. 
Supply the initial store of plant food by spading a 
liberal amount of black barnyard manure into the 
ground before planting. If the soil thus enriched is 

144 



APRIL — THE FOURTH WEEK 

sandy loam you have the ideal combination, but other 
kinds of soil will do. 

Pulverize the ground thoroughly with the spade 
and then the rake and finally a smoothing board be- 
fore planting the seed. If the bed is to be small, 
and you just want to lay yourself out to produce the 
best possible lettuce, put an inch or two of the sur- 
face soil through a fine screen. Have the rows a 
foot apart and inark them for the planting with the 
point of a stick so lightly that the depression will be 
hardly noticeable. Drop the seed in an even line in 
this shallow drill and barely cover. The first leaves 
should show within a week. At the end of the second 
week thin out to about four-inch intervals. As soon 
as it is possible to determine which are the best plants 
thin again to one foot intervals so that the remaining 
heads will have plenty of room and plenty of food. 

After the lettuce is well started the growth may be 
quickened and a crisper, more tender crop obtained 
by supplementing the manure already dug into the 
ground by a little of nitrate of soda. A couple of 
ounces sprinkled along a twenty-foot row of plants 
and lightly raked in, or the same amount put in a 
gallon of water used for sprinkling the ground be- 

145 



APRIL — THE FOURTH WEEK 

side the plants after sunset will do much good' in 
forcing development. Similar results may be ob- 
tained, though not quite so quickly, by scattering 
a shovelful of hen manure along the row, close to the 
plants but not touching them. Rake this in. The 
nitrate or hen manure is nitrogen feed and lettuce 
is one of the few things with which this particular 
form of fertilizing is not so apt to be overdone. 
Nitrogen makes wood in trees and foliage in plants, 
rather than fruit, and as the leaf is the only part of 
the lettuce that is wanted the more of it the better. 
With peas or beans, on the other hand, too much 
nitrogen would give very luxuriant growth of deep 
green leaves and very few pods. 

Frequent cultivation of the lettuce is very neces- 
sary, not only to keep the weeds out but to save the 
moisture for the roots just below the surface. 

Lettuce is a cold-weather plant at its best, but 
with proper care may be grown in succession through- 
out the season. Muslin screens placed above the 
plants in the heat of the day during the hottest part 
of the season will help a great deal. An incident of 
a recent winter's remarkably mild weather and an 
indication of the hardiness of lettuce was the growth 

146 



APRIL — THE FOURTH WEEK 

of this plant in the writer's open garden in middle 
Jersey as late as the end of January. This, of 
course, was accidental. Plants which had seeded 
themselves from the late fall crop had come up and 
survived what little cold there was so well that they 
were transferred from open ground to a cold-frame. 

Another convenient thing about lettuce is that it 
fits so well into a companion cropping plan. Such 
a scheme is the planting of several different veg- 
etables at the same time on the same patch of ground, 
the arrangement being to select things that require 
short, medium and long periods for coming to ma- 
turity. All sorts of combinations are possible in this 
companion cropping, by which ground space is saved 
and the same cultivating is made to serve for more 
than one crop. Here is just one for a sample: 

Plant early cabbage and lettuce in a row with ten 
inches between plants, and the two kinds alternating. 
Ten inches from the first row plant a row of rad- 
ishes, ten inches beyond that another of alternating 
lettuce and early cabbage plants, and so on till the 
ground available for the combination patch is occu- 
pied. The radishes will mature and be out of the 
way before they can become a drain on the other 

147 



APRIL — THE FOURTH WEEK 

things and the lettuce will be out of the way next, 
leaving the cabbages in sole possession of the patch 
when they are maturing. 

This same thing is done by orchardists on a large 
scale when they set their new apple trees forty feet 
apart and set peaches between. By the time the 
apple trees need all of the land the peach trees have 
finished their work and can be pulled out. There 
is no reason in the world why Everyman should not 
do the same thing in his garden. 

Lettuce is almost immune to insect pests or dis- 
ease. About the only thing that ever attacks it is 
the plant louse. You can get rid of that very easily 
by dusting the plants with tobacco powder. Use a 
powder sprayer or bellows. 

Human beings have been eating cabbage, to the 
advantage of their health, for at least four thousand 
years. Everyman should keep up the record for his 
own family by having a patch in his garden. Near 
by there should be some of the allied plant, the cauli- 
flower. These things are very similar in their re- 
quirements and so near alike in their make-up that 
somebody once described a cauliflower as a cabbage 
that had had a college education. To start in April 

148 



APRIL — THE FOURTH WEEK 

to get early cabbage or cauliflower it is necessary to 
buy plants started under glass in February, For 
next winter's supply of late cabbage the seed may be 
sown in the open ground at any time through May 
or June throughout that wide belt of the United 
States which may be roughly described as within the 
latitude of New York or Philadelphia. About the 
first " don't " for the amateur to observ^e in select- 
ing the place for his cabbage is don't put it where 
cabbage was last year. It is subject to more veg- 
etable iDs than you can shake a stick at, and the 
germs of these diseases linger in the ground from 
one season to the next and may ruin this year's crop 
even if the trouble was not in evidence last season. 
Sour soil — that is, soil with too much acid in it — 
is very sure to make trouble, especially by bringing 
about the club root, the worst of the cabbage diseases. 

First see if the soil is sour by squeezing a piece 
of blue litmus paper in a moistened lump of earth. 
If it turns red the acid is there. Work a pound of 
lime into every twenty-foot row of the garden. 

To avoid black rot it is well to soak the seed for 
fifteen minutes in a solution of formalin just before 
planting. An ounce of formalin in a gallon of water 

149 



APRIL — THE FOURTH WEEK 

is the right proportion. Insect pests that prey 
upon cabbage plants may be controlled by spraying 
with kerosene emulsion. 

For fertilizer for cabbage and cauliflower there is 
nothing better than old barnyard manure. You can 
hardly have too much of it. If it can be ploughed 
and spaded under some time before the seeds are 
planted or the plants are set out so much the better, 
for it should be thoroughly worked in, and both the 
soil and the manure should be made fine by frequent 
tillage so that the plant-food ingredients of the 
manure will be available for the roots from the be- 
ginning of growth. It is a good thing to supple- 
ment the manure with a few cents' worth of chem- 
icals. For the early cabbage use nitrate of soda 
for the same reason that you use it on lettuce — to 
quicken leaf growth. 

Cabbage and cauliflower rows should be at least 
twenty inches apart, even in a small and crowded gar- 
den where the ground area does not match the ambi- 
tion of the amateur. Two feet is a better distance. 
Plants in the row should be the same distance apart 
as the rows, and late varieties need more room than 
the early ones. 

150 



CHAPTER XIV 



M A Y T HE FIRST HALF 

Ip all the water needed to bring a good crop of corn 
to maturity on a certain field could be collected and 
held on the surface of that field it would make a 
pond eight inches deep. This applies to your own 
small patch of sweet corn as well as to the farmers' 
fields of many acres in the Com Belt. The fact was 
demonstrated at the Illinois Agricultural Experiment 
Station to convince corn growers that their crop 
needs a great deal of moisture. 

In spite of this, one grower in Pennsylvania, who 
has such a record of corn successes that they are a 
matter of official comment by the Government, raised 
one of his good crops in a year when there was no 
rainfall between planting time and harvest. 

These statements may seem contradictory to the 
amateur gardener who wants to raise some sweet corn 
for his own table, but they are not. They prove 

151 



MAY — THE FIRST HALF 

first that the com must have moisture, and second 
that if it doesn't come from the sky direct it must 
be, and what is more important, can be furnished in 
another way. The Pennsylvania farmer got his good 
crop in the dry year by much cultivation, working 
constantly to conserve what little moisture there was 
in the ground and to keep it down near the roots 
where it would serve the purposes of the plant. 

That is the lesson for the amateur. He must hoe. 
The hotter and dryer it is the more he must hoe, for 
heat makes com grow so fast that you almost can see 
it, and that steadily increasing height of stalk puts a 
tremendous strain on the root system, which must 
have its water supply if the cobs are to be well filled 
out with big, juicy kernels. 

Also the roots must have an ample food supply 
if they are to furnish a food supply for the garden- 
er's table through July and August and September. 
Of the plant-food elements needed by all vegetables 
the two that figure most prominently, perhaps, in 
the case of com are potash and nitrogen. Both 
these can be bought of the seedsman, together with 
the needed phosphoric acid in the shape of some 
commercial fertilizer that is specially adapted to 

152 



MAY— THE FIRST HALF 

com. The nitrogen is supplied in this case by ni- 
trate of soda, which is the most expensive of all the 
agricultural chemicals. If you keep hens by all 
means use some of the manure from the poultry yard 
for the corn patch. It is the richest fertilizer there 
is so far as nitrogen is concerned. Pulverize it, mix 
it well with fresh soil, and work it into the liill or 
drill where the corn is to be planted. 

Fresh hen manure unmixed with earth must not 
come in direct contact with the seed or the roots of 
the corn plant, because it is so rich that it would 
destroy them. Barn3^ard manure is the best all- 
round fertilizer _ for corn, as for everything else, if 
it is entirely free from the germs of diseases that 
attack corn. It is dangerous in that respect, so if 
3^our corn-patch soil is well suppHed with humus — 
that is, deca3^ed vegetable matter, old sods and the 
like — it does not need the breaking up process that 
comes from digging in a lot of coarse manure, and 
it is best to use the chemical fertilizer from the store 
or supply the ingi'edients in part with the droppings 
from the henhouse. Wood ashes form an adequate 
home suppl}' of the potash. 

Twenty-five pounds of commercial chemical fer- 
153 



MAY — THE FIRST HALF 

tilizer on a patch twenty by thirty feet — six hun- 
dred square feet — is a generous supply, and if that 
amount is reduced or increased in proportion to the 
size of the area devoted to com the crop will not fail 
from lack of plant food. 

Newly spaded or ploughed-under sod makes the 
ideal plat for the corn, especially if the earth is sandy 
loam. The second choice, if you have no new ground 
left in the garden area, is the patch where peas or 
beans were last year. On the other hand, the loca- 
tion of the corn must be considered with reference 
to the rest of the vegetables. The northern end of 
the garden is best, so the shade from the tall stalks 
will not dwarf the other plants that must have their 
share of the sunlight. 

Cross breeding by the falling of the pollen from 
one variety of corn on the silk of another variety 
should also be taken into account. If you plant 
the seed of a Baldwin apple or any other variety, or 
the seed of a particular sort of peach, there is no 
telling what sort of fruit you will get from the re- 
sulting trees. The same is true of com. No mat- 
ter how carefully selected the seed may be, it will not 
reproduce its own variety throughout the crop if 

154. 



MAY — THE FIRST HALF 

another kind of corn is too close. The resulting 
crop may be just as edible — perhaps more so if the 
varieties that cross are both sugar corn. But don't 
make the mistake of trying to raise a little chicken 
com for your own poultry in the same garden with 
the sweet corn. If you do that you may have to 
feed the whole crop to the hens. 

The ease with which com pollen is blown from 
onf stalk to the silk of another makes this plant one 
of the few with which the amateur may experiment 
in crossing and get results that are worth while. It 
will add greatly to his interest in his garden as some- 
thing more than a source of food and a place for 
healthy exercise. He should at least do something 
in the way of producing his own corn seed for the 
following year. Watch the development of the dif- 
ferent stalks, the time of tasseling, the amount of 
pollen and the quantity and quality of the silk. 
Then mark the plants which show the best growth 
in every respect and leave on them the perfect ears 
to ripen for seed purposes. Hang them from the 
ceiling of a dry room where the mice cannot reach 
them. Half a dozen good ears will furnish all the 
seed required for the ordinary family garden. 

155 



MAY — THE FIRST HALF 

Soil preparation must be thorough. Tillage 
should consist not only of turning over the seedbed 
with plough or spade, but also of pulvenzing the new 
surface with the rake or harrow. This is to con- 
serve the moisture by the means already referred to 
and to break soil lumps into small particles from 
which it is easier for the plants to draw their food 
supply. 

Planting in hills or drills is largely a matter of 
fancy, although each way has its enthusiastic advo- 
cates who will not admit there is any merit whatever 
in the other. This is one of the things each amateur 
should decide for himself after trying both methods, 
one this year and the other next. Then he will join 
the hill crowd or the drill crowd and be a trifle cranky 
about the matter ever afterward. But that is part 
of the fun of gardening — breaking away from the 
books and having real opinions of your own. 

Distance apart of the plants in drill or row and 
the distance apart of the hills should be determined 
in part by the variety of the corn. Seed of the early, 
low-growing varieties may be put as close as eight 
inches in the drill, with thirty inches between rows. 
Hills for the same sort of corn should be two feet 

156 



MAY — THE FIRST HALF 

and a half apart with the same distance between rows. 

For the main or late-crop, tall-growing varieties 
increase all these intervals. Let the plants in a row 
be ten inches or a foot apart, with three feet between 
drills, and let the hills be three feet apart each way 
— four is better if you have the room. For the 
row planting the distance suggestions are for the 
plants allowed to grow. It is well to plant thicker 
than that at the outset, as a precaution against the 
toll taken by birds or cutworms and plants lost in 
other ways, and then thin out if too many of the 
plants survive. 

For the same safeguarding purposes plant five 
kernels in each hill and then thin out to three plants. 
i\Iany gardeners try to raise four stalks in each hill 
and get fairly good results, but the experience of 
the writer in his own garden is in favour of three 
plants to a hill for the best returns in quality and 
quantity. To carry out the suggestion to save your 
own seed it is not a bad plan to have some hills with 
only two plants each, so that the com saved for re- 
production may have the very best chance for com- 
plete development. Plant the seed about an inch 
deep. 

167 



MAY — THE FIRST HALF 

Tillage before planting must be supplemented by 
frequent cultivation afterward to keep the weeds out 
and to have at all times an earth mulch of loose, dry 
soil on the surface to cut off the evaporation of 
moisture from below. In the small com patch this 
mulch is best obtained by the use of the hoe, which 
cuts out the weed growth at the same time better 
than a rake can. Be careful, however, not to cut 
off a root, for when a corn plant loses a root it im- 
mediately sets to work to grow a new one and that 
means so much energy diverted from the business of 
sending up the stalk and producing the ear. 

Succession in the com crop may be obtained by 
planting early, medium and late varieties at the 
same time, or by making successive plantings of the 
same early variety at one-week intervals. The ad- 
vantage of the first method lies in the fact that the 
best corn — that is, the juiciest, on the largest ears 
— is of the late varieties such as Stowell's Evergreen 
and Country Gentleman. 

BUSH AND POLE BEANS. 

String beans, the ordinary six-weeks bush variety, 
are the real benefactors of Everyman and his gar- 

158 



MAY — THE FIRST HALF 

• 
den. They will grow almost anywhere ; they will 

make poor soil better by merely growing in it, be- 
cause they take nitrogen from the air and add it to 
the reserve supply in the earth. They are prolific, 
can be had in unbroken succession from early sum- 
mer to frost-time — a movable date — and there are 
few things that ever interfere with the crop in the 
way of pests or diseases. 

Nevertheless the bean is worthy of Everyman's 
best care and its easy-going qualities do not mean 
that the seed should simply be thro\vn on the ground 
and left to take a chance. Plant the ordinary string 
beans early in May, unless your garden is so far 
north or so far down east in New England, that you 
are in danger of frosts after the middle of May. 
Planting of the limas may be postponed until the 
end of the month as an extra precaution. 

Although, as just admitted, beans will grow almost 
anywhere, a sandy loam is best. A light sandy soil 
is best for the limas. Pulverize the ground well be- 
fore planting and be generous with the barnyard 
manure. Do not use hen manure unless you want 
to raise luxuriant bean vines with no beans on them 
to speak of. 

159 



MAY— THE FIRST HALF 

Make the drills for the seed two Inches deep and 
drop the seed two inches apart. The plants will 
grow and do well as close as that, but better results 
will be had from thinning out to four inches after 
the second week of growth. Use the ground spar- 
ingly for the first planting. Plant a second lot two 
weeks later and so on until the end of August or 
later. One row thirty feet long is enough to plant 
at a time for a family of four persons. 

For the pole limas plant in hills at least two and 
a half feet apart — three feet if you have plenty of 
room. Plant five seeds to a hill, two inches deep and 
with the eyes up. After you are sure three of the 
plants are going to survive pull out the other two. 
Use poles with the bark on, as the rough surface 
gives the tendrils of the plant a better clinging and 
climbing chance. Cedar poles are best. 

In preparing the hills it is an excellent thing to 
remove a shovelful of earth, throw in a shovelful of 
manure, cover it with two inches of earth, plant the 
seed, and cover with two inches more. The seed 
should not come in contact with the manure, but it 
means good growth to have that supply buried there. 



160 



CHAPTER XV 



M A Y T HE SECOND HALF 

No time will be saved by trying to rush the season 
of planting melon seed in the open ground. Not 
only must the danger of frost be entirely gone, but 
the soil must have had time to warm up before re- 
ceiving the seed. 

Starting melons under gla§s is almost never tried 
by the amateur. It is not suggested to him in his 
seed catalogues and the seedsmen do not start and 
sell the plants as they do tomatoes. Nevertheless 
this method for getting an early crop is resorted to 
by commercial growers in many parts of the country 
where the season is short, and is, of course, the reg- 
ular practice in Canada where the bulk of the famous 
Montreal melon crop is raised for the market. So 
there is no reason why Everyman in his small garden 
should not take a hint from the professional grower 

161 



MAY — THE SECOND HALF 

to prolong the fruiting period of one of the most de- 
lightful things he can possibly raise for his table. 

It is safe to begin melon planting out-of-doors by 
the middle of May as far north as latitude 41, ex- 
cept in regions where, because of altitude or other 
peculiar local condition, there is risk of later frosts. 
But if Everyman happens to have his garden up near 
the northern edge of the country let him start his 
seed in a cold-frame or protect the hills in the open 
garden with glass boxes. 

The boxes can be bought at an implement store, or 
they can be made easily by the gardener himself. 
A wooden box a foot and a half square and ten or 
twelve inches deep, such as the grocer wull give you 
or sell for a nickel, will do for the frame. Knock 
out the bottom and one side and substitute window- 
glass. Then place the converted frame with the glass 
top over the space where the melon seed are planted, 
with the glass side towards the south. It is better 
to arrange the overhead glass so it can be slipped 
back and forth a few inches to allow an opening for 
ventilation in the middle of the day. This contriv- 
ance will enable the amateur who uses it to get a 
start of three weeks or more on his neighbour's mel- 

162 



MAY — THE SECOND HALF 

ons. It costs very little and the boxes may be used 
season after season and for many purposes other than 
that of giving early warmth to the melon patch. 

If the seeds are planted in a cold-frame or else- 
where under glass except under the boxes in the gar- 
den where they are to remain permanently, they may 
be put in a month before the outdoor season begins. 
Before transplanting wet the soil well so it will 
cling to the roots and then dig up each plant with 
as much soil as possible and transfer quickly to the 
prepared hill. 

Sandy soil, with an abundance of humus in it, is 
best for the cantaloupe. But if Everyman's Garden 
is not blessed with that variety of earth he need not 
forego the satisfaction of having a melon patch. The 
plant will grow in any soil with proper care. But 
the heavier and more clayey it is the greater the 
necessity of breaking and lightening it up by plough- 
ing under old leaves or manure. 

Melons may be planted in hills or drills. The hill 
is the older and more popular device. Planting in 
rows or drills with plants a foot apart is the modern 
plan of many of the large commercial growers. Hills 
should be four feet apart if three or more plants are 

163 



MAY — THE SECOND HALF, 

allowed to remain in each. Plant at the outset six 
or seven seeds to make sure of having three or four 
to select from after they show above ground. Of 
course, the smaller the number left to grow and de- 
velop to the fruiting stage the better in flavour and 
larger in size the melons will be. If you have plenty 
of room, or if you prefer quality to quantit}^, leave 
only two plants to a hill. If you wish to raise 
just a few melons of prize-taking qualities to talk 
about and serve at the table for some specially 
honoured guest try a few hills with only one plant 
each. It is worth while. For this special crop pinch 
off the vine three or four joints beyond the melon 
as soon as the fruit is set, so that all the strength and 
goodness will go into that one melon. 

Preliminary tillage of the ground should be deep 
and thorough and a liberal supply of barnyard 
manure should enter into the fertilization. In addi- 
tion to the manure that is broadcast over the whole 
patch be sure to put a forkful in the bottom of each 
hill. Cover that with a thin layer of earth, so the 
seed will not come in direct contact with it, and then 
put two inches of well-fined earth over the seed. 
This must be firmed down with the foot or hoe, as in 

164 



MAY — THE SECOND HALF 

any planting, and then for a finishing touch sprinkle 
over a very light cover of loose, dry soil to form a 
dust mulch to keep the moisture underground. This 
method of planting assures the seed of the best con- 
ditions under which to start, and the forkful of 
manure under the hill serves as a reserve supply of 
plant food for the roots to draw upon when they 
most need it to offset the tremendous drain of the 
vine and fruit development. 

Weed and grass growth must be an unknown quan- 
tity in the melon patch, and to this end, as well as to 
conserve moisture, there must be very frequent culti- 
vation from the time the plants fu-st show, a week or 
so after the seed goes into the ground, until the end. 
To cultivate the entire ground, even after the vines 
have spread mdely over the patch, it is well to use 
the small, short-handled weeding tools with which 
you can work under the stems and leaves. If neces- 
sary the vines may be moved about gently so that 
the gardener may get at every inch of the soil. 

As a precaution against worms and rotting place 
each melon on a shingle rather than let it remain in 
contact with the earth. 

Every lover of cantaloupe knows his own likes and 
165 



MAY — THE SECOND HALF 

dislikes best, but there are three well-known types of 
melon recognised by the Government Department of 
Agriculture and by the horticultural societies within 
which all the various shapes, sizes and colours of mel- 
ons may be classified. These are the Rocky Ford 
and Jenny Lind, or small type; the Hackensack, or 
medium variety ; and the large Montreal Market. If 
you succeed in raising a Rocky Ford or Jenny Lind 
about five inches through from the stem end, just a 
trifle less than that in the side-to-side diameter, with 
a small seed cavity from which the edible part ex- 
tends all the way to the rind, shading gradually from 
light to deep green, and with the outer surface of 
the fruit evenly netted all over, you have got what the 
experts would call a perfect melon. If it is perfect 
in all those particulars the flavour and texture are 
very apt to be all that they should be. 

Yet this may all be spoiled by picking at the wrong 
time. The melon is at its best only when allowed 
fully to ripen on the vine. The sure test of this ful- 
ness of development is the ease with which it may 
be plucked. If the slightest tug is required to re- 
move the fruit from the vine it is not quite ripe. 
Leave it another day or until it comes off^ in the hand 

166 



MAY — THE SECOND HALF 

almost at a touch. There is one more danger of 
jour being cheated of the full enjoyment of the per- 
fect thing you have produced: Cool the melon but 
do not ice it, for that will impair the delicacy of the 
flavour you have worked all summer to get. 

If your garden is far north, where the growing 
season is short, the natural process may be helped 
out to a considerable extent by raking into the soil 
of the melon patch an application of nitrate of soda. 
Two pounds for a patch twenty feet square will be 
sufficient. This will materially hasten the plant 
growth and put the vine in condition to bear its 
fruit earlier. 

As a rule the saving of seed by the amateur for 
next year's planting is hardly worth while, because 
the professional seedsmen can do that work so much 
better and because their product is so cheap. But in 
melons Everyman may well make an exception, there- 
by adding something of the scientific pleasure of prop- 
agation improvement to the ordinary delights of 
gardening. But his determination to do this should 
be made at the outset of the growth of his vines. 
It will not do simply to save the seed of one or two 
melons that are particularly juicy or well flavoured. 

167 



MAY — THE SECOND HALF 

The gardener must be sure that those particular 
fruits came from vines that were particularly thrifty 
in their growth and free from all diseases. 

Frequent sprayings with Bordeaux mixture afford 
the best remedy for the blight or mildew which often 
afflict melon vines. It is worth while to use this 
spray as a preventive even if the vines appear to be 
all right. Kerosene emulsion will free the leaves 
from the melon plant lice and thorough dusting with 
tobacco powder is a good thing to save the patch 
from the striped cucumber beetle. 

CUCUMBERS AND PARSLEY. 

The cucumber has an ancient and honourable line- 
age. It was a favourite food in India three thou- 
sand years ago. A thousand years later the Chinese 
adopted it and in the latter part of the sixteenth cen- 
tury it was introduced into England. Since then 
every generation of gardeners has done something to 
improve it. 

Nearly everything that has just been said of the 
cultivation of the melon could be repeated for the cu- 
cumber so far as preparation of the soil and thorough 
cultivation after planting are concerned. Sandy 

168 



MAY — THE SECOND HALF 

soil will produce the earliest crop, but cucumbers 
planted in a clay loam will, other things being equal, 
be more prolific and the vines will produce later. 
For succession crops the seed may be planted all 
through May and June. Although it will not stand 
frost the cucumber is not so sensitive as the melon. 

Pests and diseases which attack the two plants are 
practically the same and so is the treatment. 

If planted in hills, the popular way with the ama- 
teur, the cucumbers should be at least three feet 
apart and not more than five vines left to a hill. 
The first appearance of the leaves should be a week 
after the planting and the first of the crop ought to 
be ready in nine or ten weeks. 

Parsley makes a most attractive border for the 
garden, and when so used takes so little room that 
Everyman need not hesitate to try a little on the 
ground that it is not much of a food product. Its 
use as a garnish for the real dishes adds a little to 
the gardener's pride, which increases in proportion 
to the number of different things he can boast of as 
of his own raising. It is a slow-going plant at best, 
so it should be started by the middle of May ; for the 
fall crop, seed can be sown through June. Sow 

169 



MAY — THE SECOND HALF 

thickly in very shallow drill along the edges where 
borders are wanted, and when the plants are up thin 
out to four-inch intervals. For good results the soil 
must be reasonably rich, and as nothing but leaf 
growth is wanted the fertility may be obtained by 
the use of nitrate of soda or pulverized old hen ma- 
nure sprinkled beside the row an inch or two from 
the plants. 



170 



CHAPTER XVI 



JUNE THE FIRST HALF 

A HEALTHY joung plant shows its condition even to 
the novice just as a healthy baby does. If you find 
a tomato plant of the spindling sort help Nature 
out by burying two or three inches of the stem — 
that is, make a shallow trench from where the root is 
set in the ground, gradually sloping to the surface; 
bend the plant so that a part of the stem may rest 
in this trench and be covered with soil. Then bend 
the projecting part upright and support it with 
stake and string. From the buried part of the stem 
a new root system will start, giving enough under- 
ground works of the plant to support its growth and 
give it a fair chance to yield a crop. But that is a 
good deal of bother. It is better to get strong plants 
in the beginning. 

The tomato is a plant with a history. It started 
in South America, probably in Peru, where it was 

171 



JUNE — THE FIRST HALF 

used as a food, got across the Atlantic to Europe, 
where it was cultivated extensively in the Mediter- 
ranean countries, and finally crossed the Atlantic 
again, this time to the United States, where for years 
it was dreaded as a deadly poison. There is a case 
on record of an Italian trying to sell some in Salem 
the first of the last century. Salem felt as bad about 
it as they had about the witches a hundred or more 
years before that. But the South was less sceptical. 
People began to eat tomatoes in the Gulf of Mexico 
region and the habit gradually overspread the coun- 
try. 

Of this history the one fact that the amateur 
in his garden should remember is that the tomato 
had its origin in a hot country and has never been 
bred or developed out of its dependence upon heat to 
make a good showing. The daytime temperature at 
which it will do its best is 80 degrees, but it will grow 
well in climates with a much lower average tempera- 
ture than that. It will do no good, however, to set 
the plants out in the open garden until the chill is 
entirely gone from the soil, and on cool nights, espe- 
cially if a frost is threatened, the young plants 
should be covered with newspapers. Give them a 

172 



JUNE — THE FIRST HALF 

southern slope, if you have one in the garden, to as- 
sure the maximum of heat and sunhght ; also pro- 
vide a windbreak to the north. 

As for soil, sandy loam is the best but there is no 
soil that the tomato will not grow in and produce 
fruit if it has proper care and fertilization, always 
providing that the drainage is good enough to pre- 
vent the standing of water on the surface. Toma- 
toes have been grown on a clay heavy enough for the 
making of brick and, on the other hand, they have 
grown in soil so sandy that the only body to 
it was what was artificially provided by the working 
in of large quantities of manure. So no amateur 
gardener need forego the pleasure of raising tomatoes 
because of the character of his soil. But the best is 
always the best, so if there is a spot of sandy loam 
put the tomatoes there. They will not only yield 
larger crops, but the fruit will be of better flavour 
and more symmetrical in shape. 

Shape and flavour suggest, naturally, the three 
methods of growth. Plants may be allowed to grow 
naturally and straggle over the ground. They may 
l^e left unpruned, but held off the ground by some 
four-sided, trellis-like contrivance, or they may be 

173 



JUNE — THE FIRST HALF 

pruned to the single main stem and that tied to a 
stake. 

Single-stem staking of plants saorifkes some- 
thing in the number of fruits because so much of the 
bearing portion has to be cut off, but much is gained 
in the flavour, general qualitj^, size and shapeliness of 
the tomatoes. It stands to reason that a single plant 
will do better by a few fruits than by many. Con- 
stant cultivation close to the plant is also possible 
by this method, and the numerical loss of fruits is 
offset in part by the possibility of setting the pruned 
plants closer together than those that are allowed to 
run where they will, so more can be placed within a 
given area. For staking use stout sticks long enough 
to go a foot into the ground, with four or five feet 
above the surface. They must be placed firmly 
enough to bear the constantly increasing weight of 
the plants and their crop, and to stand rigid in any 
wind ; otherwise a storm may spoil the whole scheme. 

Stakes should be set when the plants are put out 
— an inch or two away — so there will be no tearing 
of the roots by poking the sticks down after growth 
has begun. As the upright stem of the plant in- 
creases its height, it should be tied every foot or so 

174 



JUNE — THE FIRST HALF 

to the stake, pinching off the side shoots as they ap- 
pear and finally pinching off the upright growth of 
the main stem itself when it reaches the top of the 
stake. Careful observance of these very simple rules 
gives not only tomatoes that are perfect to the eye 
and to the taste, but a plant that is in itself an orna- 
ment to the garden. 

Allowing the whole plant to grow, but inclosing it 
within the four supporting sides of a lattice-like en- 
closure has, in common with the stake system, the ad- 
vantage of keeping the foliage and fruits off the 
ground and gives the gardener much clear space be- 
tween plants in which he can do a lot of useful work 
with the hoe. Of course the trellises cost more to 
buy and are much more bother to make and the fruit 
is apt to lose something in quality because of its 
greater abundance. 

The third method, that of letting the plant run 
all over the ground, with half of its fruit being 
spoiled or injured by coming in contact with the soil, 
may or may not be justified in a large commercial 
patch, but it is certainly not advisable in the small, 
well-kept inclosure of the amateur's garden. 

The tomato is one of the few vegetables of which 
175 



JUNE — THE FIRST HALF 

it is worth while for the amateur to save his own 
seed. For that purpose select the finest fruits from 
the thriftiest plants that have made the best showing 
from start to finish. The source of the commercial 
supply of seed is not always what it should be. 
Some of the big canneries have installed machinery 
by which the seeds are separated from the pulp and 
these are sold to the seedsman. Since good, bad and 
indifferent tomatoes go into the cans the seeds are 
of the same degrees of worth and worthlessness. 

Barnyard manure is excellent for the tomato patch 
and should be worked into the ground if the soil is 
lacking in humus or decaying vegetable matter — 
that is, if it is too heavy with clay or too thin with 
nothing but sand. But if the texture of the soil 
is all right the manure may be left out and the fer- 
tilizing done more conveniently and cleanly with 
chemicals. There are commercially mixed fertilizers 
that serve the purpose, but you may make your own 
ideal chemical combination at trifling expense and 
with little effort. 

For a patch twenty feet square — room for thirty- 
six staked plants, placed three feet apart each way 
• — buy two pounds of nitrate of soda, five pounds of 

176 



JUNE — THE FIRST HALF 

bonemeal and one pound of muriate of potash, a to- 
tal of eight pounds. Mix these three essential plant 
foods thoroughly, scatter the mixture on the tomato 
patch and rake it well into the soil. If here and 
there you find a plant that does not seem to be up to 
the average of the patch in the making of stem or 
leaves its growth may be stimulated by giving it just 
an extra pinch of the nitrate of soda. Furthermore 
the tomato patch, as well as every other part of the 
garden, will show its gratitude for a thin sprinkling 
of wood ashes. These take the place of the muriate 
of potash. 

There are many varieties of tomato plant to se- 
lect from. Some are so big that they might almost 
be classed as vegetable freaks, but seldom do these 
varieties produce a large proportion of shapely, per- 
fect fruits of good flavour. For your own garden 
there are no surer, more satisfactory standbys than 
Earliana for the early crop and the Stone tomato 
for the main crop. Out of every five plants set out 
four should be Stone. 

Like the tomato, the eggplant is of tropical origin, 
and all suggestions concerning the former vegetable 
as to soil, temperature, protection, cultivation and 

177 



JUNE — THE FIRST HALF 

selections of thrifty plants appW to it. The plants 
should be set from two and a half to three feet apart 
and the soil — sandy loam if 3-011 have it — must be 
kept friable by frequent cultivation. The chemical 
formula given for tomatoes may be modified to advan- 
tage for egg-plant fertilization b}^ adding an extra- 
pound of muriate of potash to the mixture. 

Peppers, the third plant in this same group for 
setting out in tTune, will thrive best under exactly 
the same conditions of soil and culture that have 
been laid down for the eggplant. 

In the early stages of their growth the eggplant, 
pepper and tomato plants may be nipped off close 
to the ground by cutworms. The drier the weather 
the greater the danger from this pest. Get rid of 
the worms by making a poisonous mash of wheat 
bran and Paris green and sprinkling the stuff on the 
ground near the plants. This is the easiest and at 
the same time the most effective way. 

Then there is the green tomato worm as big round 
as your little finger and from two to three inches 
long, armed with a horn on its head. Other pests 
prey upon these worms themselves to such an extent 
that they seldom become numerous and do little dam- 

178 



JUNE — THE FIRST HALF 

age to the plants by eating the leaves, their sole 
method of attack. They are so conspicuous that 
they may be got rid of simply by knocking them off 
and crushing them on the ground. 

The next one of the enemies to be watched for is 
a smaller worm that bores into the fruit itself. It is 
the same animal that gets into an ear of corn and eats 
the kernels. Tomato patches remote from the corn 
are seldom seriously troubled by it. A Parisgreen 
spray will kill it and this poison may be used witli 
absolute safety when the fruits are small and green. 

Various small insects, including the flea beetle, 
may be kept off the plants by dipping them before 
planting in a solution of an ounce of arsenate of 
lead in three gallons of water. 

Aside from the green worm with the horned head, 
eggplants and tomatoes have practically the same 
insect enemies and the treatment is the same for both 
plants. Except for the cutworm and a weevil that 
is confined to the Southern states the pepper is re- 
markably free from living pests. 

Spraying all three — eggplant, peppers and toma- 
toes — with Bordeaux mixture will prevent or con- 
trol the fungous diseases that sometimes afflict them. 

179 



CHAPTER XVII 

J U N E T HE SECOND HALF 

If you are sticking by your own place for your sum- 
mer vacation, having decided that you will not only 
save money that way but will get more real fun and 
relaxation in your garden than anywhere else, you 
can still enjoy holiday travel in your mind by try- 
ing to do in that garden as an extra diversion what 
some other amateur in another part of the country 
or of the world does in his garden as a matter of 
course. One chief purpose of going away is to see 
strange things. Raise strange things in your gar- 
den. No matter what part of the country you 
may be in, there are some flowers and vegetables 
unknown in your neighbourhood that will justify a 
little experimentation, providing you have a few 
square feet still unoccupied. Now, near the end of 
June, when the serious part of the garden work is 
all planned and well under way, is the time for a 
little frivolity with soil and seed. 

180 



JUNE — THE SECOND HALF 

Try peanuts, for example, if you have a hundred 
days left before the average date of the killing frost 
of your region. You have that much time unless 
your garden happens to be in Northern New Eng- 
land or in the upper tier of the Western states. 

I'lant a few gourds for the oddity of the things. 
They grow very quickly and are to be cultivated in 
about the same way that melons are. You can prob- 
ably grow your own calabash pipe and a dipper for 
the kitchen. 

Having your pipe, or several of them to supply 
guests, you will naturally think of tobacco. Raise 
some of that too, not because the smoking of it will 
be very satisfactory, but for the fun of the thing. 
A plant or two are worth trying almost anywhere 
south of New York, and tobacco is raised success- 
fully in the Connecticut River Valley way up into 
Massachusetts. When you have raised one or two 
tobacco plants — they grow to a height of four feet 
or more — hang them by the stems to the bam or 
attic rafters to cure. Open the windows on dry, 
bright days and close them in wet, foggy weather 
so the dampness will not cause mildew on the leaves. 
That is the way your white ancestors did in this 

181 



JUNE — THE SECOND HALF 

country, having learned the trick from the Indians. 

The women of the house can match the men's to- 
bacco and calabash victory by pouring for their 
friends some tea grown in the liome garden — if that 
garden is in any one of eight or ten of the Southern 
Atlantic or Gulf Co-ast states. 

The sweet potato Is another uncommon vegetable 
for the amateur's garden, but it is much more than 
a freak or a joke crop. It is grown In quantities in 
Southern New Jersey, and eighty miles farther 
north it has done well in small gardens for the home 
table. 

Pumpkins and Hubbard squash, which belong nat- 
urally In the New England states, are worth trying 
in other parts of the country to get a home-grown 
supply of the things that make the best pies. If 
there is still room try a little garlic. 

Now to be more specific about these uncommon 
things with which you may amuse and interest your- 
self. There are at least twelve kinds of gourds that 
will grow In almost any part of the country. They 
all make rapid and extended growth and can best be 
disposed of by trailing over a fence or trellis, where 
they will be out of the way and where their orna- 

182 



JUNE — THE SECOND HALF 

mental foliage and curious fruits will make the best 
showing. Get the dipper and bottle varieties as 
well as the calabash, and try one Chinese Luffa, the 
inside of which can be used as a sponge. Gourds 
can be planted throughout June. Put the seed two 
inches deep in a sandy loam, and before planting 
work in a forkful of old manure. 

The sweet potato has nothing in common with the 
ordinary tuber so far as cultural methods and re- 
quirements are concerned. Buy the plants and set 
them out in sandy soil in rows three feet apart, with 
foot intervals between the plants in the row. Keep 
an eye on the weather and try to do this work just 
before a shower. 

Light soil is essential, and the more it is broken up 
by the forking in of manure to renew the humus sup- 
ply the better for the crop. For fertilizing pur- 
poses chemicals are better than the barnyard ma- 
nure used alone. So for a sweet-potato patch about 
twenty feet square supplement the previously worked- 
in manure with the following mixture: One pound 
of nitrate of soda, two pounds of bone black and a 
pound of sulphate of potash. Clean cultivation is 
essential throughout the period of growth. If frost 

183 



JUNE — THE SECOND HALF 

should catch jou before the potatoes are quite as 
large as thej should be harvest them just the same. 
There will be no loss in flavour or quality. 

Peanuts should be planted later than com or lima 
beans, for they are even more sensitive to a lingermg 
coolness in the soil. The earth must be of the right 
sort mechanically, for the peanut buries itself and it 
cannot do that if the ground is hard or stiff. Not 
only sandy soil is necessary, but it must be well tilled 
and loosened up to a depth of six or eight inches and 
kept in this condition until after the plant has per- 
formed its ostrich-like feat of burying its head in 
the sand. 

The peanut is not a root, as most people suppose. 
Neither is it a nut. The plant blossoms above 
ground; then when the flower has shed everything 
but the ovary, which is provided with a sharp point 
for boring, the stem turns earthward and the ovary 
bores its way into the soil, where it develops into 
the pod. The root system is as entirely separate 
from the peanut as the root of the bean plant is 
from its pod. If possible get the seed from a dealer 
who sells peanuts for planting purposes and who can 
tell 3^ou what variety you are getting — whether the 

184 



JUNE — THE SECOND HALF 

Spanish, the Virginia runner or the Virginia bunch 
— as knowing the variety will enable you to space 
your hills to the best advantage. But if that is not 
convenient just go to the fruit and nut store for 
your supply, making sure of course to get peanuts 
that have not been roasted. Virginia runner peanuts 
should be planted in rows a yard apart, with sixteen- 
inch intervals in the row. The bunch variety can 
be in row^s only thirty inches apart, the plants only 
nine inches apart in the row. The same distances 
will do for the Spanish and Tennessee Reds. 

Buy a quart of the best-looking peanuts you can 
find in the store, pick out those of the best shape 
and size and shell them. Plant three or four shelled 
nuts every sixteen inches to provide against fail- 
ure to germinate, but after they have started pull 
out all but one plant from each group. Cover the 
seeds with an inch and a half of soil. Peanuts may be 
planted in the shell, but the germination is several 
days slower. 

It is the Spanish peanut that is used for the mak- 
ing of peanut butter. Roast the nuts, before or 
after shelling, in a moderate oven, until they become 
crisp without any suggestion of burning. Stir them 

185 



JUNE — THE SECOND HALF 

about frequently in the course of the roasting proc- 
ess so they will be done evenly. Then remove the 
red skins, split the nuts, knock off the seed germs be- 
tween the halves, and put the separated nuts through 
the meat grinder. Grind them as fine and smooth as 
possible and put the "butter" away in sealed jars. 

Making the butter, however, is getting ahead of 
the story. Let us finish raising the peanuts first. 
To do that successfully the soil must not only be in 
the right mechanical condition to let the stems get 
underground, but it must be amply supplied with 
lime and well fertilized. 

For a patch of ground twenty feet square put on 
ten pounds of agricultural lime and work it in when 
the preliminary spading or plowing for the peanut 
crop is being done. Apply the fertilizer later, half 
at the time of planting and half after the plants show 
above ground. This fertilizer should not be barn- 
yard manure unless you apply it a year in advance. 
There is a double danger in using the manure at the 
time of planting. It contains too many weed seeds 
and it is apt to cause an abnormal growth of leaf 
and stem of the peanut plant and small and only 
partly filled pods. 

186 



JUNE — THE SECOND HALF 

Here is a good cliemical mixture for potatoes 
which makes an ideal fertilizer for peanuts, reduced 
to proportions for the twenty-foot-square patch: 
Two pounds and a half of nitrate of soda, six pounds 
of bonemeal and two pounds of muriate of potash. 
This must be thoroughly mixed into the soil with a 
rake. If you have any wood ashes they will serve 
well on the peanut ground as a substitute for the 
muriate of potash. 

Cultivation must begin immediately after planting 
and should be kept up faithfully until the plants are 
well developed and begin to form the pods. With 
each cultivation work a new supply of loose soil 
toward the plants from both sides, so that the stems 
will be assured of a soft bed of earth In which to 
bury the ends. It is not necessary to bury these 
ends yourself. Nature will look after that if she 
has half a chance. 

Harvest the peanut crop when the vines begin to 
turn yellow In the fall. Careful digging with a 
potato fork Is the best way. Peanut plants are re- 
markably free from insect pests and disease, but do 
not tempt fate by planting them on the same ground 
next year, no matter how good a crop you may get 

187 



JUNE — THE SECOND HALF 

this season. They require rotation, so if the pea- 
nut experiment is to be repeated another season plant 
them where the corn is now. Crop or no crop, re- 
member this — the mere growing of the peanut 
vines in jour garden will greatly improve the soil, 
for the}^ are great gatherers of nitrogen. 

Both pumpkins and the winter or Hubbard squash 
may be planted in June. You need only a few, so 
the hills should be eight feet apart, with three plants 
growing from each hill. Sandy soil is best. Cover 
the seed with an inch and a half of soil and have in 
the bottom of each hill a forkful of old manure. 
Then cultivate well and watch them grow. 



188 



CHAPTER XVIII 



^ U L Y T HE FIRST WEEK 

Alt. the arguments for having home-grown fresh 
fruits and vegetables In the season of their harvest 
may be advanced with even greater force and reason 
in favour of carrying the supply right on through 
the winter and until it Is time for you to start your 
garden for another year. Great as the difference 
may be between a mess of green peas picked from the 
vines back of the house shortly before dinner and a 
mess from the grocery store, there is a still greater 
difference between the quality of the home-grown and 
home-canned peas and the can that is bought. This 
difference is not only in flavour and tenderness, but 
in the comfortable assurance of cleanliness and per- 
haps safety from disease and poison. 

Of course pure-food laws have done much good 
and there are many big commercial concerns putting 
up the best fruits and vegetables in the best way 

189 



JULY — THE FIRST WEEK 

they know. But they don't grow the stuff in the 
first place, and they cannot control the time of 
its picking and the time that must elapse between 
picking and canning — two factors that are very 
essential in the matter of having vegetables in winter 
that can compare in colour, taste and tenderness 
with the summer supply. 

Furthermore, nothing is so conducive to your sense 
of independence as to furnish a material part of your 
own food supply, not merely for a few months, but 
for the complete round of the calendar. It may 
mark your transition from the salaried man who 
works in one place and lives in another to the happy 
state of the prosperous farmer who gets all his living 
from his own land. Scores of modern, scientific 
farmers of to-day were born in cities, moved to the 
suburbs as their first experiment, and got their first 
dream of owning acres from the fun of having a 
two-by-four-foot radish bed. But back to the can- 
ning. 

The winter's supply should be provided for in the 
original laying out of the garden and in the scheme 
for succession planting and companion cropping. 
If you neglected that important matter at the be- 

190 



JULY — THE FIRST WEEK ' 

ginning of the season it is not too late to offset the 
blunder now by making allowance in the mid-season 
planting for later crops. 

Try to arrange the harvest times of the fruits and 
vegetables that are to be ];cpt for winter so they will 
come as close together as possible. This will mean 
the bunching of the business and save much hard 
work in a hot kitchen. It is as difficult to put up 
one can as a dozen, so there is no point in spreading 
the process out over the summer. 

If the gardener arranges his end of the business 
skillfully his wife ought to be able to put up food 
enough for all winter in several canning periods of 
not more than three days each. One row of beans, 
for example, may be all he will want to come into 
bearing at one time to furnish a supply to be eaten 
as it is picked. But if there is room it is better to 
have all the bean supplj^ to be canned come from one 
planting of as many rows as are required. 

Cultivation and ample fertilization have direct 
bearing on the winter supply as well as on the day- 
to-day output of the garden, because only the best 
should be put in cans ; and vegetables that are grown 
quickly, even forced a little by plenty of plant food, 

191 



JULY — THE FIRST WEEK 

make the best showing when put up. Thej should 
be picked at the proper time to retain their tender- 
ness and colour — a day or two eadier than would be 
necessary if they were to be eaten fresh from the 
vines. That is the secret of successful canning. 
Anything that is left on the vines a day or an hour 
too long, until the hardening and yellowing process 
sets in, is going to be tough, lacking in flavour and 
in that delightful natural-green colour that ought to 
distinguish all home-canned garden products from 
the commercial varieties. 

There are two more points to look after closely: 
Pick in the morning when the dew is on the plants, 
before there is any suggestion of wilting; have the 
jars and the various cooking utensils in readiness, 
the fire going well and the water boiling. Then do 
the necessary shelling, stringing, cutting up and 
other preparatory work in a cool place and rush the 
fruits or vegetables to the sterilizing jars. If care- 
ful work is done in the sterilizing, cooking and seal- 
ing the vegetables will keep for months in very much 
the same condition as at the start, so the taking of 
pains in the preliminaries is well worth while. 

The old notion was that excluding the air was what 
19^ 



JULY — THE FIRST WEEK 

kept tilings from spoiling. This was based on the 
wrong theory that oxygen caused the decay of vege- 
table matter. It is still necessary to keep the air 
out, not because it in itself or the oxygen makes 
trouble, but because it is filled with germs, and the 
old way of sealing the jars with metal or glass tops 
is still the most convenient thing to do. 

The canning possibilities begin with rhubarb in 
spring and do not end until Thanksgiving, when 
pumpkin and mincemeat bring them to a fitting 
close. 

Contemporaneous with the rhubarb is asparagus. 
The home canner may cut the asparagus into the 
long portions usually served and pack them care- 
fully, tips upward, in wide-mouthed jars. But the 
simpler way is to cut the tender tips into pieces an 
inch and a half long and pack the jars as full as 
possible. Then fill the jars with cold water, adjust 
the covers loosely and place the whole in the steamer 
to be boiled for an hour, with the steam escaping. 
Then clamp on the covers tight and allow the jars to 
cool until next day. On the second day, with the 
covers loosened again, put the jars in the steamer 
and allow them to remain there for an hour after the 

193 



JULY — THE FIRST WEEK 

water comes to a boil. Clamp and cool till the third 
day, when, after the third boiling, the jars are sealed 
permanently. 

The reason for these repeated boilings is that while 
the parent bacteria succumb to the first high tem- 
perature, their spores are more tenacious of life and 
begin to germinate promptly as soon as the first cool- 
ing process is under way. The second boiling kills 
off this second batch of bacteria before they have 
developed new spores. The third boiling, while not 
absolutely necessary, makes assurance doubly sure 
and enables the housewife to seal her jars with the 
certainty that they will keep perfectly. 

By the end of June the canning season proper is 
on, with the peas and the beans as the top-liners of 
the performance. The best peas for canning are the 
early varieties. The later ones cannot be relied upon 
to be tender and of the sweetness that has made this 
special delicacy famous. Peas should be gathered 
a day or two earlier than is usual for table use, picked 
while still cool and dewy, shelled by the collaboration 
of the household on a breezy porch, then packed in 
clean jars and cooked by steam according to the di- 
rections given for asparagus. 

194 



JULY — THE FIRST WEEK 

For string beans the same rule applies. Bte sure 
to gather the beans while they are a little smaller 
than one would want them for immediate consump- 
tion. This precaution is especially important in. the 
case of peas and beans and makes all the difference 
in the world in the finished product. Both these 
vegetables lose considerable bulk in the cooking 
process. For this reason it is well to put one extra 
jar through the steaming operation and then use its 
contents for the filling of the others after their con- 
tents have shrunk at the end of the first day's boiling. 

Corn is regarded by many as an unlucky vegetable 
for canning. But if picked while very tender, cut 
from the cob at once with a keen knife that leaves no 
ragged kernels, packed tightly into the jars, which 
are then filled with cold water, and cooked by steam 
as already described, there should be no difficulty. 
Another way is to take extra large jars, say of the 
four-quart size, and can the com on the cob. 

To do this it is necessary to select very tender 
ears of a small-cob variety. They should be sub- 
jected to the boiling process for an hour and a half 
instead of an hour on each of the three days. The 
result will be a platter of corn on the cob on your 

195 



JULY — THE FIRST WEEK: 

table in midwinter, equal in appearance and flavour 
to that of summer. 

Tomatoes deserve an epic all their own. Their 
peculiar and delicious acid is most desirable as an 
offset to the heavy winter menus. They are the 
simplest of all vegetables to can and to keep and 
offer a variety of uses such as nothing else in the 
garden can. First choose your tomato — a depend- 
able, solid variety, such as the Stone. 

Gather the fruit while it is in its prime, not In the 
least overripe or watery. Scald the tomatoes, there- 
by making the removal of the skins a very easy mat- 
ter, and cut the pulp into quarters, merely to hasten 
the cooking. Then fill a graniteware or porcelain- 
lined kettle — never an iron one. Tomatoes cook 
down very materially, so one can keep adding fresh- 
cut fruits to this first batch until the simmering 
mass Is all the kettle can hold. 

When the whole kettleful is boiling well the tomato 
juice will be found at the top, the heavy mass of pulp 
sinking lower down. Take advantage of this little 
fact of physics by dipping off this boiling juice 
separately into a hot sterilized jar and sealing it at 
once for future tomato soups. 

196 



JULY — THE FIRST WEEK 

One who enjoys foreign cooking will not fail to 
prepare a generous supply of the salza — sauce — 
that enters so largely into the meat and vegetable 
dishes of French and Italian households. This is 
simply tomato cooked with celery and onion enough 
to flavour it well, then put through a very coarse 
strainer, giving a delicious, thick, pulpy sauce. It 
wdll transform a plain omelette into a feast. 

Summer squash may be prepared and cooked as 
for the table, the excess water drained off, and the 
pulp packed solidly in jars and steamed for an hour 
and a half a day for three consecutive days before 
sealing. 

Beets should be young and very tender. Prepare 
as for the table, slice thin, cover with water, and 
steam only an hour on each of the three days. 

Canned eggplant is a gi'eat acquisition to the home 
bill of fare. Pare and cut into thin slices and leave 
them in boiling water half an hour. Then drain, 
pack into jars and steam as you did the squash. 
The half-hour cooking of the eggplant before can- 
ning makes the slices pliable, so they can be easil}^ 
packed into the jars. When opened for use drain 
and cook like fresh eggplant. 

197 



JULY — THE FIRST WEEK 

If the cauliflower crop shows signs of not keeping 
well the heads may be prepared as for the table, 
packed into jars and sterilized, ready to be reheated 
and the desired sauce or seasoning added. 

Many persons can even carrots and parsnips, 
claiming that these vegetables when small are free 
from the strong flavours they develop if allowed to 
come to maturity, and so are really more palatable 
than if stored in the cellar. 

Lima beans are canned in the same manner as com 
or peas. Canning the pumpkin or winter squash is 
the only sure way of keeping these vegetables beyond 
December or January. It is done just as in the case 
of the summer squash. 



198 



CHAPTER XIX 



JUL Y T HE SECOND WEEK 

Jui/Y Is the month in which the gardener must co- 
operate with Nature in bringing to perfection what, 
between them, they have ah'eady started. It is the 
month for developing and putting on finishing 
touches in form and size and colour rather than a 
period of starting new things. This Is particularly 
true In the flower garden and with the shrubs and 
hedges. Of course with vegetables It Is always seed- 
time so long as there is a vacant space left and a 
sufficient number of days before frost for some quick- 
growing food supply to come to maturity. 

In the flower garden the new beginnings are nar- 
rowed down to the filling In of empty spaces, where 
this or that plant has died, by the setting out of a 
late aster or a bit of flowering stock. The rule to 
fill In the gaps and offset the losses is always a good 

199 



JULY — THE SECOND WEEK 

one to follow in a flower garden, not only for the 
sake of appoamnccs but for the health of all the 
plants. The fault of the amateur gardener Is not 
that he crowds too much into a given space, but that 
he leaves too much bare ground in his flower beds, 
or waste space for weeds to occupy. Nature covei*s 
every square inch. 

The amateur's error is due to his good intention to 
have what is mistaken for an appearance of neatness 
in too wide patches of cleanly cultivated earth. A 
flowering shrub or plant Is more attractive than a 
spot of bare soil, no matter how clean it is. And 
enough plant food can be supplied to nourish every 
leaf and blossom there is room for. 

This brings us to consideration of the prime job 
of Julv in the flower p-arden — summer fertilization 
to add to tlie richness of the flower colours and to 
deepen the green of the foliage. 

It is assumed that you were liberal with manure at 
the outset of the season, when you planted your seed 
and set out young plants. But there has been a 
drain on that original supph* of plant food during 
the past two months to make the body of the plants 
and the early blossoms. More plant food now, sup- 

200 



J U L Y — T n E S P: C O N D WEEK 

plemented by judicious cutting back and pruning, 
will prolong the flowering season of some of the 
roses and other plants that are supposed to end early 
in June. It will increase many times the vigour of 
the plants that blossom all summer, and it is par- 
ticularly valuable for the things that are just now 
coming into flower, such as the Japanese iris and 
the many fine varieties of phlox. 

The ideal plant food for all flowers through the 
summer is liquid manure. This is best made from 
cow manure if you can possibly obtain it. Be wary 
about the use of horse manure unless you are very 
sure it is old and thoroughly rotted. Horse manure 
will do very well to dig in for the spring fertilization, 
when the ground is being prepared. It is a risk}' 
thing now, as are chemicals. So try to find a man 
with a cow and get a wheelbarrow load from his dung- 
hiJl. 

Put a bushel of the cow manure into an old grain 
sack and suspend it in a barrel of water. A fifty- 
gallon kerosene barrel or an old liquor cask of the 
same capacity can be obtained for little money at a 
store and will serve this useful purpose for many sea- 
sons. Hang the bag of manure in the water so it 

201 



JULY — THE SECOND WEEK 

swings clear of the bottom of the barrel and leave it 
three days. 

A gallon of the mixture is not too much for one 
full-grown rose plant. Before applying it scrape 
the earth out for a foot or more all round the plant, 
just deep enough to make a shallow basin. Then 
pour in the gallon of liquid manure and as soon as it 
has soaked into the soil cover the moistened circle 
with earth to prevent evaporation. That particular 
rose plant will fairly revel in the richness of its nour- 
ishment. Repeat this application two weeks later. 

For the phlox and iris and all the rest apply the 
same kind of fertilizer, but in smaller quantities. 

If you cannot secure cow manure, sheep manure, 
pulverized and bagged, is a handy and efficient sub- 
stitute. It is a more highly concentrated fertilizer 
than cow manure and should therefore be used more 
sparingly. A small quantity mixed with the soil 
about the rose plants will give almost as good results 
as those attained from a liquid application. 

To get the continued rose supply from this en- 
richment you must cut back the flower-producing 
portions to about two eyes, the nearer to old wood 
the better. If you are fortunate enough to have a 



JULY — THE SECOND WEEK 

Mrs. John Lang rose — the very best there is for the 
amateur's garden — it will bloom all season, anyway, 
but with added enrichment of this sort it will be the 
delight of the neighbourhood. 

This matter of cutting back is worth a digres- 
sion. Many things benefit by it. Golden glow, for 
instance, if cut down to within six inches of the 
ground when the first flowers begin to go by, will 
send out short side stems bearing a second growth of 
blossoms to follow the August glow. The same with 
phlox. Cut off the July flower heads before the 
seeds form and there will be a prolonged season of 
phlox blossoms. This digression might be length- 
ened to cover many other plants, but you should dis- 
cover some of these things for yourself by experi- 
menting. Bonemeal is another safe and effective fer- 
tilizer for July use. A pound of it is not too much 
for a single rose plant of good size, while a handful 
will do for small bushes and for flowers of other 
varieties. Always remember that the rose is a heavy 
feeder and if it goes hungry it will not produce the 
colour or the fragrance that your garden plan calls 
for. 

Cultivate all summer, incidentally, to keep the 



JULY — THE SECOND WEEK 

weeds out of the flower garden, principall}^, to main- 
tain a mulch of loose surface soil which will hold the 
moisture underground where the roots can get the 
benefit of it. A well-cultivated garden will do much 
better throughout an entire season marked by 
drought than a neglected garden will do in a summer 
of ample rainfall. That is not merely a theory of 
soil chemists ; it is a hard fact that applies to every 
patch of ground that man ever tried to turn to his 
own account. 

To save time and wear on the back do the culti- 
vating with the push hoe or English scuffle hoe, 
rather than with the chop hoe. With the scuffle the 
cultivation is more shallow, but it is more thorough 
in breaking the capillarity of the soil — that is, 
the small tubes that form themselves into outlets for 
the moisture to the surface if they are not broken. 
Use the hoe after each shower, thus saving for future 
use of the plants all the moisture that Nature has 
bestowed. 

There is one alternative to frequent cultivation — 
that is in having a permanent mulch of something 
other than the broken surface of the soil. In Eng- 
land, where they have the best gardens in the world, 

204^ 



JULY — THE SECOND WEEK 

especially of roses, it is customary to keep a mulch of 
cow manure two or three inches deep spread over the 
bed throughout the growing season. This keeps the 
^veeds down and the moisture in and with every 
shower the water, percolating through the m.ulch, 
carries with it to the roots of the plants the rich- 
ness of liquid manure. But the average gardener in 
America would object to that method on the ground 
that it would be unsightly. But the fact remains 
that the English raise the finest roses. It is partly 
due to their cow-manure mulch method and partly to 
the fact that they are not afraid to prepare a rose 
bed four or five feet deep in clay soil. But that is 
another story. 

If a shower falls on your garden in the middle of a 
summer day and is followed by sunshine there is no 
doubt that it is beneficial. Nevertheless stick to the 
rule that for artificial watering it is better to use the 
hose or sprinkling pot at sunset than at midday. 
And w^hen you do water at night do it thoroughly — 
as thorouglily as possible without causing the soil 
to w^ash. Ten gallons put on at one time will do 
more good than twenty gallons doled out niggardly 
over a period of several days. A good watering once 

205 



JULY — THE SECOND WEEK 

a week in dry times, supplemented by cultivation, is 
about right for the flower garden. 

Don't forget that the pests are with you all sum- 
mer in one form or another. Just about now you 
are at the height of the rose-bug season. That 
nuisance generally begins his feasting on the peonies 
and then shifts to the roses for his second course. 
He is also very fond of the coreopsis. Daily inspec- 
tion of the plants and picking the bugs off by hand 
is the only insurance against the destruction of every- 
thing and anything they attack. There is no spray 
that will fit their case. 

Hand picking is also the only sure method of pro- 
tection against the aster beetle. Another helpful 
thing to do is to get rid of all goldenrod that grows 
anywhere near your aster bed. Wherever the gold- 
enrod grows you will find the black beetle, that is 
death to asters. Hand picking for this insect should 
be a task for every morning. Then there are the 
leaf borer, the thrips and the green fly. Tobacco 
spray, either dust or liquid, will rid plants of the fly. 

Hollyhocks all through the country have of recent 
years become a prey to the red spider, which attacks 
the under surface of the leaves, especially when the 

W6 



JULY — THE SECOND WEEK 

plants, for any reason, are not in thrifty condition. 
The spider sucks out the juices of the leaf. So the 
hollyhocks must be well nourished with plenty of 
plant food — bonemeal, cow or sheep manure — 
and have good cultivation. The hollyhock also 
offers an exception to the general rule against thin- 
ning. If the stalks begin to crowd, thin them out at 
the surface of the ground. As an added precaution 
against the red spider, spray with tobacco or weak 
kerosene emulsion. 

There is a general rule to be applied to the prun- 
ing of all flowering shrubs — that is, do it as soon as 
the flowering is over and at no other time. That 
means a job for July, which is a flowerless month so 
far as the majority of the shrubs are concerned, 
their chief glory coming in April, May and June. 
The reason for the rule is this — the flowers of the 
year to come will grow on the wood that is formed 
between the blooming seasons. Nature requires a 
full year to bring that wood to bearing, so if it is 
cut off in the fall or winter or spring there will be no 
flowering. 

Do not prune the Japanese barberry much at any 
time if you want it to be a winter ornament, filled 

20T 



JULY — THE SECOND WEEK 

with red berries, when outdoor colour is hard to find. 

Pruning of hedges is another matter. They are 
primarily for boundaries, not for colour. Pinning 
should be done when form and shapeliness demand it. 
A California privet hedge grows about as rapidly and 
as irregularly as the hair on the head of a small boy 
with a cowlick and a double crown. It should be 
trimmed about as frequently too. The. box hedge, if 
neglected, not only loses its shape but also its dense 
habit of growth, which is its chief merit. 

Here is a suggestion for a plant in your flower 
garden that should be popular in this country, but 
is not. It is the Viola cornufa, or tufted pansy. 
If you can get it established in your garden — not a 
difficult matter — you are reasonably sure of having 
its flowers in the open from May until snow falls, 
with as wide a range of colour as that ofi*ered by the 
ordinary pansies. In England, where the plant is 
common, there are no less than sixty varieties. 

The plants can be bought in this country from 
many of the seedsmen in the big towns. They are 
fine for borders, and if you are ambitious enough to 
have a bit of rock work in your garden the tufted 
pansy is the thing to give it colour. It is rather 

208 



JULY — THE SECOND WEEK 

late, but try a few plants this year for an experi- 
ment, being sure, of course, to give them the benefit 
of a muslin screen protection against the hot sun 
until they get rooted. They require reasonably rich 
ground. 



^09 



CHAPTER XX 



ErtTLY^ THE THIRD WEEK 

July planning and consideration of root crops, with 
reference to a supply of home-grown vegetables for 
the table next winter, naturally falls under two 
heads : What more can you plant at this period of 
the summer? And what is the best treatment for 
the roots already under cultivation to bring them 
to the highest state of perfection for keeping? 

Throughout the middle of the country there is 
ample time for the planting of beets, carrots, ruta- 
baga and the ordinary turnip. The last two vege- 
tables are possible throughout the month, even in 
New England. If your garden happens to be south 
of a line drawn roughly ^cross country touching the 
northern edges of Kentucky and Maryland you may 
make a planting of potatoes as late as the first of 
August. The custom is to use seed saved from last 
year, in many cases from the second crop. Seed 

210 



JULY— THE THIRD WEEK 

potatoes need a rest varying from a few weeks to a 
few months, depending upon the variety. 

It is not customary to plant parsnips — a root 
that should be much more popular than it is — later 
than April. That is the parsnip-planting time pre- 
scribed by usage and all the garden authorities. But 
it is always interesting and never harmful to deviate 
a little from authority in the garden and try an 
experiment on your own hook. The methods of cul- 
tivating the parsnip are exactly the same as those 
laid down for the carrot. 

It is true that it is a very slow-growing vegetable, 
requiring about 125 days to come to maturity, but 
that is largely offset by the fact that frost never 
hurts the parsnip. As a matter of fact many gar- 
deners leave the parsnips undug until after the 
ground has frozen, in the belief that they thus 
acquire more sweetness and better flavour. 

The potato, of course, is the chief staple food you 
can raise. Your early crop, directions for which 
were given in chapter two, is about ready to dig — 
in many parts of the country it has already been dug 
and has added its very material contribution to the 
delights of a summer garden. But the main crop 



JULY — THE THIRD WEEK 

— the potatoes you hope to eat next winter — is 
just getting where it needs careful attention to make 
it worth digging at all. 

The potato bug is something that the greenest 
novice In the garden can get rid of if he is willing to 
work a little, either by hand picking or with his 
spray. But the late blight of vines and the rot of 
the potatoes themselves which is sure to follow that 
blight are more difficult to understand and to con- 
trol. It can be done by that same novice and his 
crop will pay him for the trouble. 

In taking care of the blight you kill two birds with 
one stone, for the treatment not only saves the vines, 
but makes the crop larger in size and numbers and 
better in quality. Vine blight comes from the seed 
in which fungus trouble has developed through the 
winter. Affected potatoes sometimes show a pinkish 
tinge and dry rot, but it is not always possible to 
detect this at planting time, so you may put In af- 
fected seed potatoes without realizing it. The 
germs spread to the sprouts as soon as there is any 
considerable amount of moisture to give them a start, 
and soon spread over the growing vines, blighting the 
foliage and checking the growth of the tubers them- 

gl2 



JULY— THE THIRD WEEK 

selves. But that is only part of the process, 
allowed to take its course the blight produces spores 
that fall back to the surface and make their way 
underground to attack the new potatoes. 

To save the potatoes you must begin by saving 
the vines. That is best done by spraying with Bor- 
deaux mixture at least once a fortnight, and oftener 
in very wet weather, until the plant stops growth 
and the normal wilt begins. The spraying should 
begin of course as soon as the leaves show the slight- 
est symptoms of being unhealthy. But you will 
make no mistake if you adopt the Bordeaux treat- 
ment when your plants are about four inches high, 
even if they do not appear to be affected. 

Spraying before a shower is always advisable, be- 
cause it kills the germs that are sure to spread as 
soon as the plants become wet. If an ounce of Paris 
green is thoroughly stirred into ten gallons of the 
Bordeaux the spray will not only take care of the 
blight, but of the potato bugs too with one opera- 
tion. 

The sure sign of blight or rot is when the leaves 
begin to show dark spots, which soon turn soft and 
give off a very disagreeable odor. 

213 



JULY — THE THIRD WEEK 

Cultivate the potato patch with the hoe through- 
out the growing season, and when the vines begin to 
overspread the bare ground between the rows it will 
not hurt a bit to do a little hand work to get out the 
weeds that will grow close to the vines and rob the 
soil of just so much plant food that should go into 
the making of the crop. This hand work will also 
maintain your earth mulch right up to the stems of 
the plants and thus save the moisture for the roots. 

Fertilizing for the potato should be done before 
planting. As a matter of fact it is best done the 
year before planting, when a grass field that is to be- 
come a potato patch the following season should be 
heavily enough manured for two years. In this way 
you get the required richness in the ground without 
the danger of fungus diseases of the potato that 
lurk in barnyard manure when it is first spread, or 
the risk of burning by the use of chemicals. 

Nevertheless a little judicious fertilizing after the 
growth of the plants begins is sometimes necessary 
to get a good crop. So if the plants seem hungry 
and lack thrift, when there is no disease to account 
for the difficulty, apply some of the special potato 

214 



JULY — THE THIRD WEEK 

fertilizers that the seedsman sells and rake it in be- 
tween the rows. Remember that this special potato 
food should be richer in potash than in either of the 
other two main fertilizing ingredients. Wood ashes, 
which contain eight or nine per cent of potash, 
would be useful were it not for the large content of 
lime which favours the growth of scab. 

The rutabaga is a Russian or Swedish turnip ; 
some professional gardeners call them " Swedes " for 
short. They are less watery than the ordinary tur- 
nip, have a richer flavour, and keep better through 
the winter. They also require a little more time to 
mature, but there is time enough this 3^ear to raise 
rutabaga and other turnips for next winter. 

To save trouble the seed may be sown broadcast 
over the piece of the garden that is available for this 
vegetable. The plants will come up within a week 
and very thickly. Thin out so that each root left 
will have enough ground room in which to make its 
size, and there will at the same time be turnip plants 
enough left on the patch to keep the weeds out and 
eliminate, in part, the necessity of cultivating. A 
better way is to plant them in rows a foot or foot 

215 



JULY — THE THIRD WEEK 

and a half apart, with six-inch intervals between the 
plants, and cultivate as you would any other row 
crop. 

The best fertilizer for turnips, rutabagas and beets 
is a mixture in the following proportions for a patch 
of about twenty by forty feet : Pound and a half of 
nitrate of soda, four pounds of bonemeal and two 
pounds of muriate of potash. Buy your own chem- 
icals in quantities to suit the size of your garden and 
mix them thorouglily yourself before raking into the 
soil. The cost is very slight. 

The ideal soil is sandy loam, and the finer it is 
kept the better. The turnip will not thrive in a 
drought, no matter how rich the soil is, unless the 
moisture is kept in the ground by frequent breaking 
up of the surface. In a very dry time the turnip 
will benefit greatly from liberal watering with the 
hose after the heat of the day is over. 

Club root, the same disease that afflicts cabbage, 
often attacks turnips and rutabagas. It is not a 
complaint that can be cured by spraying, so the 
only thing to do is to prevent it. Don't put the 
turnips where there was a root crop of any sort last 
year ; take every precaution possible to get good seed ; 



JULY — THE THIRD WEEK 

and as soon as a young plant shows signs of being 
abnormal pull it out and burn it. 

Maggots working underground sometimes bore 
into the turnips themselves. Water the ground with 
strong suds made from carbolic soap. Slight freez- 
ing will not hurt the turnips, so the harvesting of 
this crop may be left till about the last thing in the 
fall work. 

For carrots the best fertilizing formula differs 
somewhat from that just given for the beets and tur- 
nips, being stronger in the bonemeal, which supplies 
the phosphoric acid, and containing less of the ni- 
trate and potash. The mixture for the carrots on 
the twenty-by-forty-foot basis should be one pound 
of nitrate of soda, six pounds of bonemeal and one 
pound of muriate of potash. 

For anybody who has noted the fine, lacelike char- 
acter of the carrot leaf the hint that there should be 
no coarse weeds near it is probably unnecessary. 
Neglect of weeding in the carrot bed from the very 
outset means the demoralization of the crop. 

Sandy soil is best, and the more deeply it is culti- 
vated the more shapely and the smoother the carrot 
roots will be. The rows should be a foot apart and 

217 



JULY — THE THIRD WEEK 

four-inch intervals between plants is sufficient for 
the smaller varieties, which are the better ones for 
the home garden. They will keep better if pulled 
before maturity. 

A beetle sometimes causes trouble by eating young 
carrot plants. It is a difficult thing to get rid of 
if it comes, and about the only thing worth trying 
is a spray of a very light solution of arsenate of lead. 
An ounce of the poison in about three gallons of 
water will do. 

There are companion vegetables for nearly all the 
root crops — that Is, quick-growing things that may 
be planted at the same time and which will be out of 
the way before the principal vegetables in the com- 
panion-cropping combination need all the ground. 
For example, put the root rows a little farther apart 
than you would ordinarily to have room for cultiva- 
tion, and put radishes between them. 



218 



CHAPTER XXI 



JUL Y T HE FOURTH WEEK 

Don't let yourself deteriorate from a garden enthu- 
siast to a garden quitter just because the middle of 
July is past. It is only the shank of the season on 
the soil. There is much to be done, not only to bring 
the things already under wa}^ to perfect develop- 
ment, but to begin from the beginning with entirely 
new crops for the late fall harvest. Not even the 
annual going away from home for the vacation of a 
week, a fortnight or a month about this time of the 
summer is sufficient justification for letting a good 
garden go to the dogs ten weeks before its time. Get 
the new crops started anyway, and hire a neighbour 
or a neighbour's boy to look after things at least 
once a week while you are away, so that you will have 
a little more than a fighting chance against the 
weeds when you return and the fall supply of fresh 
vegetables for the table will make the trivial expense 

ai9 



JULY — THE FOURTH, WEEK 

of the emergency caretaking seem as nothing at all. 

The list of things that may be planted now is al- 
most as long and enticing as that of May or June. 
Several of the vegetables which were started at the 
outset and have been eaten before this are to be 
repeated by at least one more successional planting. 
Others, untried so far this year, are going to furnish 
not only food, but the renewed zest in the garden 
which comes from each new enterprise. 

Don't hold it against yourself if you feel a trifle 
blase by the middle of July so far as another plant- 
ing of radishes or even peas or six-week beans is con- 
cerned. Put them in again as a matter of course, as 
a matter of household economy, and then tuni your 
attention to endive or spinach, for example, for the 
real interest in the second half of the gardening sea- 
son. 

Before specializing for the week let us enumerate 
the things on the general list that are still suitable 
for planting: Early varieties of peas may go in for 
the last planting any time within the next fortnight, 
except in the extreme northern parts of the United 
States. There are three weeks safelj^ left for bush 
beans, also for lettuce. Early varieties of beets and 

220 



JULY — THE FOURTH WEEK 

carrots will be on the planting list until the middle 
of next month. Spinach, radishes and early turnips 
may be planted as late as the last of August. 

If the family has an appetite for sweet com on the 
cob that is not satisfied by the usual midsummer and 
late summer crops try another row now of some very 
early variety. If you have space it is well worth 
taking the chance of bringing it through to maturity. 
But on that particular vegetable there is no time to 
lose. Take all the gardening rules you can find, and 
for an average they will give you about the middle 
of July as the latest date on which you can plant 
corn. Deviation from rules by a week may be com- 
mendable independence and garden courage ; by much 
more than that is plain foolishness. 

Kohl-rabi can be started now with fair show of 
success, also another batch of small cucumbers for 
pickling purposes. But the time limit on them 
IS the same as that for sweet com. One year the 
writer planted an extra-early variety of corn the 
middle of July to see what would happen. It all 
came through in good shape, with all the ears well 
developed, and the first of it was eaten on the nine- 
teenth of September. A guest that day was a neigh- 

221 



JULY — THE FOURTH WEEK 

bour who had ridiculed corn planting in the middle 
of July. 

For the amateur who has not yet got the meaning 
of all the terms of the garden and the seed store 
clear in his head it may be helpful to explain that 
the terms " early " and " late," as applied to dif- 
ferent varieties of various vegetables, do not mean 
that one is for planting early in the season and the 
other late. The words simply indicate roughly the 
length of time that a certain variety takes to come to 
maturity after planting. " Early " means a shorter 
and " late " a longer period of development. So 
for late planting always select " early " varieties of 
beets, carrots, corn or whatever else you are about to 
put in the ground. 

For the familiar vegetables of the early summer 
planting, such as peas and beans, corn, lettuce and 
the rest, apply the same methods of fertilization and 
clean cultivation and earth mulching that served in 
April and May and June. In some cases, particu- 
larly with the new plants of lettuce and peas, extra 
precautions are needed in July and August to protect: 
the growth from excessive heat. This is afforded 
by placing muslin screens over the plants for several 



JULY — THE FOURTH WEEK 

hours during the extreme heat of the day. Of 
course the required moisture must be provided^ either 
through the conservation process of frequent raking 
of the surface or by judicious watering. Also re- 
member that hot weather is always corn weather. 

Now for some of the things not ordinarily tried in 
the amateur garden, but which you should become 
interested in and plant now. Endive is surely one 
of them. If, as in the case of any other man, the 
way to the gardener's heart is through his stomach, 
let the promise of a wonderful salad be made now. 
It consists of lettuce and endive, with Roquefort 
cheese dressing. Just one portion of that with your 
own endive on your own table fifty or sixty days 
hence will pay for all the trouble you may take in the 
meantime to produce the vegetable. It is, in flavour 
and crispness, one of the most distinctive things that 
grow. It is a native of East India, but curiously 
enough very hardy as to frost and easy to raise in 
this country way into late fall. As a matter of 
fact it makes its best growth in the cool weather at 
the tail end of the season, just as peas thrive better 
in April and May than in July and August. 

Get the seed of the curled or fringed leaf rather 
223 



JULY— THE FOURTH WEEK 

than the broad-leaved variety of endive, for it is 
much better for blanching and keeping for winter 
salads. Broad-leaved endive is better for greens and 
soup flavourings, using the leaves themselves rather 
than the stalks. 

The best soil is a sandy loam. The planting may 
be on the spot where the vegetable is to have all its 
growth, or it may be planted in a seedbed and then 
transferred to the permanent place. One way is 
about as good as another. The slight advantage of 
transplanting hardly pays for the trouble. By fol- 
lowing the simpler method you have only to thin out 
the plants to six-inch intervals. If they are trans- 
ferred from a preliminary seedbed give them the 
same six-inch spacing in transplanting. Seed should 
be covered very thinly with earth, but placed close in 
the drill to assure an ample supply of healthy plants 
after thinning. 

Thorough preparation of the soil before planting 
is of great importance. Dig well to the depth of the 
spade, clean off all the weeds and rubbish and then 
make the surface as fine as possible by pulverizing 
with hoe and rak'^.. If the soil is at all thin — that 
is, lacking ':i numus or decayed vegetable matter — 



JULY — THE FOURTH WEEK 

use barnyard manure for fertilizer. If the mechan- 
ical condition of the soil is good a chemical fertilizer 
will serve the purpose better than the manure, for 
the plant food contained in it is released more quickly. 
Quick growth for endive, as for lettuce, is essential 
if it is to be at its best so far as crispness is con- 
cerned. For that reason a supplementary fertilizing 
with nitrate of soda, raked in between the rows after 
growth begins, is urgently recommended, no matter 
what material has been used for the preliminary en- 
richment of the soil. 

For that preliminary fertiHzing here is an excel- 
lent formula for chemicals for a patch containing 
about four hundred square feet: Three pounds of 
nitrate of soda, eight pounds of bonemeal and two 
pounds of muriate of potash. These quantities cost 
very Httle. Buy them separately so to be sure of 
what you are getting; mix them thoroughly with 
the spade, and then work the mixture into the 
ground. For the later fertilizing to produce quick 
growth of leaf and stalk take three pounds more of 
the nitrate of soda, by itself, and use it between the 
rows. 

If barnyard manure is used for the same area of 
^25 



JULY — THE FOURTH WEEK 

four hundred square feet instead of the chemical for- 
mula two hundred pounds will be about right. 

Blanching is as essential in the raising of endive 
as with celery, otherwise the stalks are too bitter to 
be palatable. The process, a very simple one, should 
begin when the plants are about six inches high. 
Exclusion of the light is the thing to be attained, 
and the manner of doing it is of secondary import- 
ance. The simplest method is to tie the tops of the 
leaves together with yarn or raffia so that the out- 
side leaves form a tight case about the heart of the 
plant through which the light does not penetrate. 
Banking with earth, as in celery blanching, or cover- 
ing with leaves or straw, or shielding from the light 
by a tent-shaped contrivance of boards, will also do 
the work. Whatever the method adopted, extreme 
care should be taken not to tie up or cover when there 
is any water or dew on the inside leaves and stalks. 
If there is, the blanching process simply becomes a 
rotting performance. 

When real cold weather sets in remove the plants 
from the garden, with some soil clinging to the roots 
of each one, and place them close together in a cool, 
cellar or in a protected outdoor trench, well covered. 

^26 



JULY — THE FOURTH WEEK 

In this way the supply of endive for salad may be 
carried into the winter. 

Spinach is another plant that originated in the hot 
part of Asia but will grow here the year round with- 
out winter-killing. It may be sowed in the United 
States as late as the middle of September, will get a 
start before freezing, live in the open ground all win- 
ter if covered with four or five inches of straw, and 
resume growth the first thing in spring, thus produc- 
ing one of the earliest home-grown greens. But it 
may also be planted now, in the latter part of July, 
for use late in the fall, as it requires only about sev- 
enty days to come to maturity and the early frosts 
will not harm the developed plants. 

Rich soil is required for a really satisfactory 
growth of the proper size and greenness. Anything 
that is spindling or that falls short of that very dark 
green is not worth raising. Moisture is another es- 
sential. Have the rows a foot and a half apart with 
six-inch spaces between plants. Keep out all weeds, 
and even after weed growth has stopped, if it ever 
does, cultivate by shallow hoeing or raking for the 
sake of keeping the moisture in the ground. 

Everybody likes spinach, but many housewives 



JULY — THE FOURTH WEEK 

hate to cook it because it has so much sand and grit 
in it that it is a difficult thing to prepare. If your 
wife happens to be one of those who have declared 
they will not fuss with it any more ask her to give 
you just one more chance. Then, if she relents, tr}^ 
the Norfolk or Bloomsdale varieties, which grow in 
vase form, with broad, thick leaves that are sup* 
ported on stout stalks and do not rest on the 
ground. That is the point: they do not get full of 
sand. 

The best chemical formula for spinach for four 
hundred square feet is: Three pounds of nitrate of 
soda, ten pounds of bonemeal and two pounds of 
muriate of potash. 

Salsify, or oyster plant, to be used in the same 
season, must be planted not later than the first of 
June, because it is of slow growth, sometimes requir- 
ing 160 ddijs to come to maturity. But now is a 
good time to put in a little salsify for next spring. 
Like spinach, the salsify will get a good start in the 
fall and live in the ground through the winter. 



CHAPTER XXII 

AUGUST THE TIEST WEEK 

The fruit and vegetable garden is one more item that 
may be added to the short but delightful list of the 
things of this world that improve with age. It may 
be made to class, on that score, with wine and good 
books, cathedrals and century-old lawns of England. 
It all depends on the gardener himself. And August 
is an excellent time to begin to assure better results 
for another year. 

Get the idea of the garden as a continuous thing, 
not as a food-producing patch that begins in the 
spring and ends in the fall. With the adoption of 
the permanent notion you are on the right road to 
making your garden improve with age. You make 
lasting improvements in soil structure and establish 
a sinking fund in soil fertility to be of use in the 
seasons to come. 

For this immediate season go on with the cultiva- 
229 



AUGUST — THE FIRST WEEK 

tion and the weeding and add fertilizer where it is 
needed. But more care is required now of course 
in the application of manures — chemical or natural 
— than in the beginning, before planting. Other- 
wise something may get burned up by the very plant 
food that is given to enrich it. Liquid manure is 
the best possible thing to apply now. 

Fertilize the asparagus bed now if you failed to 
do it at the proper time, immediately after the cut- 
ting season was over. Next spring's stalks of as- 
paragus depend upon the food that the plants get 
before winter. Manure put on in the spring does 
little good to the crop of that same season. Spread 
a hundred pounds of well-rotted manure on every 
twenty-foot-square patch, or put the following mix- 
ture on the same area and rake it in between the 
rows: Two pounds of nitrate of soda, six pounds 
of bonemeal, and a pound and a half of muriate of 
potash. 

As a beginning for the permanent renovation pol- 
icy select the poorest part of the garden and deter- 
mine to make It the best part before you are through 
with it. It can be done, perhaps, by dragging on 
a lot of new and better top soil, or by ploughing 

230 



AUGUST — THE FIRST WEEK 

under large quantities of manure. But there is a 
surer way — one that is much more interesting and 
more permanent in its results. There will be no need 
of the new top soil, and the heavy manuring can be 
done later. 

This method is to sow in August a cover crop of 
red clover, crimson clover or alfalfa. The three are 
named in the order of the ease with which they are 
raised. But the order of their benefit to the soil 
is the reverse. That is, the alfalfa will do much 
more good, if you can get it to grow, than the crim- 
son clover, and this last is better than the ordinary 
red clover. They are all three clovers and, there- 
fore, will all perform the very useful service of tak- 
ing nitrogen from the air and storing it in the soil. 
But the alfalfa has a tremendous root system and, 
because of that, will add much more humus to the 
soil that is to be improved, and, which is of vast im- 
portance, these roots will break up and mellow the 
soil for a great depth. 

Don't brush aside the idea of alfalfa as something 
that belongs only to large farming operations. 
Don't ignore it simply because so much has been said 
about the great difficulty of growing it except in 

^31 



AUGUST — THE FIRST WEEK 

certain favoured parts of the country. If jou are 
not much north of the forty-first parallel of latitude 
it is worth wliile trying. Whether it fails or not 
in your particular garden, it is a most interesting 
experience and, in proportion, the soil benefits of a 
successful crop will be as great on a hundred square 
feet of garden soil as on a hundred acres of farm 
land. 

Here is what the writer did with alfalfa in Mid- 
dle Jersey, many hundreds of miles away from what 
used to be considered the necessary soil and climate 
conditions for this crop: His chief purpose was to 
renovate an old, run-out hay meadow and get the 
soil into better condition for a new peach orchard. 
There were a couple of quarts of seed left after the 
major operation was completed, so he put them on 
a piece of the garden, just for the fun of the thing, 
to see what would happen. The crop was a success, 
and a wonderfully improved section of that garden 
was what came of the experiment. 

Preparation for the alfalfa on the hay meadow be- 
gan in April with ploughing, very thorough harrow- 
ing and a planting to oats, which were cut late in 
July. In the little garden section the space on 



AUGUST — THE FIRST WEEK 

which the alfalfa experiment was tried had been 
plarrted to peas, six-week beans and lettuce through 
the early part of the season. The vines and other 
debris were all cleaned off and then the methods in 
the large field were all followed in miniature. Au- 
gust thirteenth the garden patch, about thirty by 
twenty-five feet, or 750 square feet, was ploughed; 
spading would do as well on a small piece. Then 
fifty pounds of lime was scattered evenly over the 
surface and harrowed in. A sack of soil, weighing 
about one hundred pounds, was scraped off the sur- 
face of a near-by farmer's field where there had been 
alfalfa and scattered over the garden patch for pur- 
poses of inoculation. This is not necessary if you 
inoculate the seed, which is a much easier matter. 
The writer did both in this particular case. 

Then that land was raked over and harrowed and 
fined still further by hauling a drag of brush across 
it until it was absolutely pulverized and level, as fine 
a seedbed as could be made. 

On August twentieth, just after sunset, the in- 
oculated seed was sown, half of it by walking back 
and forth north and south to scatter it and the other 
half by walking east and west, to assure greater 



AUGUST — THE FIRST WEEK 

thoroughness and more evenness in covering the 
ground. Then the seed was barely covered by a 
very light raking. It is important to sow the seed 
just after sunset or before sunrise, because the 
strong light of the sun will destroy the efficacy of 
the inoculating bacteria if they are exposed to it. 

This business of inoculating the seed is about as 
simple as boiling an egg. The United States fur- 
nishes the bacteria free of charge and tells you all 
about it. Write to the Department of Agriculture 
at Washington and tell them what you want to do. 
You will receive a small bottle of colourless liquid 
and two tablets. All you have to do is to sterilize 
a gallon of water by boiling it and put the bacteria 
in. Wet the seed with the mixture and sow. 

Four days after the seed was planted in the gar- 
den and in the prospective peach orchard it was 
up and the ground well covered. The plant got an 
excellent start before freezing weather and came 
through the winter in good shape. Late in the fall 
it had been covered with a liberal coating of barn- 
yard manure. In the spring it made a fine start, and 
if it had been ploughed under then its benefit to the 
land would have been worth wliile, but it was allowed 

^34 



AUGUST — THE FIRST WEEK 

to stand for two seasons in both the field and the 
garden to get a better root growth. The first year 
one crop was cut and the next year two, furnishing 
most excellent food for hens. Then it was ploughed 
under. The result is that the renovated part of the 
vegetable garden is now among the things that im- 
prove with age. 

Try a small patch yourself this August. If the 
alfalfa experiment seems like too much of an under- 
taking sow a little crimson clover anyway, unless 
you are too far north. In that case make it red 
clover. Begin permanent garden improvement now 
and make it an annual plan. 



S35 



CHAPTER XXIII 



A U G U S T T HE SECOND WEEK 

As June and July were the ideal months for canning 
the surplus products of the garden, so are August 
and September the months for drying, pickling and 
preserving the surplus of middle and late summer. 

If jou have not got a surplus jour garden has 
failed. Make a note of it as a guide for better plan- 
ning next year. If you have only enough tomato 
vines to supply the daily craving of the household 
for the fresh fruits served as salad what are you go- 
ing to do in the winter for chili sauce? Buy it, of 
course. Poor stuff at high prices. Next June you 
will know better and add a dozen or so plants to 
your tomato patch if you enter the blunder on the 
diary every gardener must keep. 

The same with cucumbers needed for pickles, and 
all the other products of the garden which by one or 
more of the various conserving processes can be made 

236 



AUGUST — THE SECOND WEEK 

to furnish a daily food supply for the family long 
after the garden is covered with snow. Plant for 
twelve months next time, and let the source of the 
winter supply be fully provided for on the garden 
map. 

There are various reasons why we can early in 
the season and pickle later. The tomato will serve 
as an illustration. For canning purposes the big 
ripe tomatoes are used and the jars are filled from 
the surplus of the vines not demanded from meal to 
meal on the table. At that stage of the gardening 
season nobody likes to pick stuff green, and it is the 
green tomato that is used for pickling. Imperfect 
fruits will also sei-ve the purpose, although the slice 
off the stem end should never be used. Making of 
chili sauce is also an end-of-the-season performance 
because the small fruits and the odds and ends of the 
late crop are as good for this as the perfect speci- 
mens. 

Here is the recipe for chili sauce that has been 
used in the writer's family for three generations to 
season the baked beans of New England and the 
meats of the rest of the country: 

Cook slowly, for an hour and a half, the follow- 
^37 



AUGUST — THE SECOND WEEK 

ing ingredients, stirring frequently to prevent burn- 
ing: Eighteen ripe tomatoes, two green peppers, 
one onion, one tablespoonful each of salt, ground 
clove, ground cinnamon, ground allspice, one cupful 
of sugar, two cupfuls of vinegar. 

Nothing that was ever poured out of a bottle 
from the store could touch that mixture as a 
relish. Of course the quantities can be increased as 
long as the proportion is maintained. 

Here is about the best thing you or your wife can 
do with sliced green tomatoes : Cover with one cup- 
ful of salt and let stand for twenty-four hours one 
peck of green tomatoes, sliced, twelve onions, sliced. 
Pour off the brine and add: Six green peppers, 
chopped, one cupful fine-cut horseradish, one and a 
half pounds of sugar, a scant half teaspoonful of 
cayenne pepper. Cover with two and a half quarts 
of vinegar and boil until the tomatoes are tender 
and the green becomes translucent in appearance. 
Pack in jars with the vinegar. During the boiling 
of the mixture the following seasonings should be 
suspended in the kettle in a muslin or cheesecloth bag : 
Two ounces each of cloves, whole cinnamon, allspice 
and mustard seed. The idea of enclosing these 

S38 



AUGUST — THE SECOND WEEK 

things in a bag is to prevent the finished product of 
the jars from being too dark in colour. 

The best test of the strength of brine suitable for 
pickling cucumbers is the newly laid egg. The brine 
should be strong enough to float it. The test will 
be surer if you keep hens than if you buy the 
** strictly fresh " at the store. 

Make the brine by adding the required amount of 
salt to boiling water. Then pour the brine over the 
small pickle cucumbers after they have been packed 
in stone or glass jars. Let them stand twenty- four 
hours. Finally dry each one on a piece of cloth and 
put them all in the j ars in which they are to be kept. 
For the pickling fluid for ten pounds of cucumbers 
take two quarts of vinegar and six pounds of sugar 
and boil, suspending in the mixture by means of the 
cheesecloth bags the same seasonings that are used 
in the pickling of green sliced tomatoes. When it 
comes to a boil skim off" any impurities and pour over 
the cucumbers in the jars in which they are to be 
sealed. 

When the particular gardener who happens to 
write these suggestions for his fellow gardeners 
throughout the country happened to remark, while 

239 



AUGUST — THE SECOND WEEK 

he was hoeing tomatoes one day, that he thought 
he would write something about pickling, his wife 
sniffed and said something to the effect that it was 
a woman's job. Then she jumped at the chance to 
spread over the country her pet family rules, as 
printed above, dictated them to the gardener and 
examined his copy with great care to make sure that 
no mere man with a hoe should give bad advice to 
some trusting housewife. 

Nine years ago the United States Government got 
together from various sources rules for ten different 
things that can be done with grapes. Then those 
ten recipes were carefully buried in the middle of a 
very large, forbidding-looking book, called the An- 
nual Report of the Department of Agriculture for 
1904, where the housewife is very sure never to find 
them. But as you have or should have a grape ar- 
bour near your garden, and as we are on the subject 
of putting things up for winter, it is worth while 
to drag forth these Government secrets. Here they 
are: 

Canned Grapes. Select fresh, firm, ripe ber- 
ries, remove the stems, and can the same as other 
fruit. The fruit of seedless varieties, such as the 

^4.0 



AUGUST — THE SECOND WEEK 

Thompson Seedless, is almost as good canned as when 
it is picked fresh from the vine. 

Grape Butter. This may be made of either 
green or ripe grapes. If intended for a relish to 
serve with meats the green grapes are to be pre- 
ferred ; or, if ripe grapes are used, a little sharp 
cider is added. Pick the grapes from the stems, wash 
well, and put into a granite kettle with just enough 
water to keep from burning. When soft enough 
press them through a sieve to remove the seeds. To 
seven pounds of grapes, weighed before seeds are 
removed, add a pint of sharp cider, and, if grapes 
are ripe, two ounces of cinnamon and one of cloves. 
Tie the spices up in muslin bags and remove when the 
butter is made. Allow three and one-half pounds 
of sugar to seven pounds of fruit, but do not add it 
until the butter is quite thick. Boil it until it is of 
the desired consistency. Some prefer adding lemon 
juice instead of cider or vinegar; from half to two- 
thirds of a cupful would make the given quantity of 
grapes quite sharp. A pint of clear grape juice 
added to the strained pulp makes the best butter of 
all. 

Grape Pickles. Take seven pounds of ripe 
^41 



AUGUST — THE SECOND WEEK 

grapes and remove the stems. Take three pounds 
of white sugar, one quart of cider vinegar, one ounce 
of cinnamon and half an ounce of cloves. Boil this 
and pour over the fruit for two mornings ; the third 
morning put fruit and all into the preserv^ing ket- 
tle ; heat so as to simmer for a few minutes, then put 
it into glass or earthen jars, tie up securely and keep 
in a cool place. 

Grape Jelly. Select firm grapes, not quite ripe. 
Wash the berries well, pour into the preserving ket- 
tle and stew slowly for some minutes to free the juice. 
Strain through a colander and then through a jelly 
bag. Keep the juice as hot as possible. Measure 
the juice and add one pound of loaf sugar to each 
pint of juice. Boil fast, for at least thirty minutes, 
until done, and put in glasses. 

Spiced Grapes. Take the pulp of the grapes, 
boil and rub through a sieve so as to get rid of the 
seeds. Add the skins to the strained pulp and boil 
with sugar, vinegar and spices, using for seven 
pounds of grapes four and a half pounds of sugar 
and one pint of good vinegar. Spice quite highly 
with ground cloves, allspice and a little cinnamon. 

Grape Marmalade. Take one pound of grapes 
242 



AUGUST — THE SECOND WEEK 

and one pound of sugar. Stew until well dissolved, 
put through a strainer bowl and then through a sieve. 
Cook until it becomes as stiff as jam. Put away in 
small preserve jars. 

Grape Leather. Use same ingredients as for 
marmalade. Boil until quite stiff. Spread on mar- 
ble slabs or china platters to dry. 

Grape Trifle. Pulp two pounds of ripe grapes 
through a sieve fine enough to extract the seeds. Add 
sugar to suit the taste. Put into a trifle dish, and 
cover with whipped cream nicely flavoured. Serve 
cold. 

Grape Junket. Take two quarts of new milk, 
warm it on the stove to about blood heat, pour into 
a glass bowl; stir into it two tablespoonsfuls of pre- 
pared rennet, two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, 
half a small wineglassful of grape juice, and half a 
wineglassful of grape brandy. Let it stand until 
cold, and serve with sugar and cream. 

Grape Pie. Take the pulp from the grapes and 
heat a little to soften it; then rub through a sieve 
to get out the seeds. Add the skins. Sugar to 
taste and bake. 

Drying fruit and vegetables to keep them through 
243 



AUGUST — THE SECOND WEEK 

the winter is almost a lost art so far as the household 
is concerned, partly because the drying can be done 
better, with less loss of flavour, in specially con- 
structed ovens run on a commercial scale, partly be- 
cause of improvements in the process of home can- 
ning by which nearly everything that grows can be 
kept with much of its original palatable quality. 
In these days nobody would think, for example, of 
cutting up peaches and apples and placing the slices 
on boards to dry out in the sun, as our great-grand- 
mothers used to do. 

Still, home drying has its limited uses. It is the 
best process by which to keep Lima beans and shell 
beans. Let them fully ripen on the vines, and when 
they are so dry that the pods crackle under pres- 
sure of the thumb shell them and put them in damp- 
proof jars until needed. 

If you canned from the early crop all the com that 
will be needed, dry a little of the late supply for the 
sake of variety. Hang the ears, unhusked, to the at- 
tic rafters just as you would in preserving the best 
ears for seed purposes. When it is as dry as the 
ordinary pop com or fodder com it may be baked 
or boiled or parched. 

244 



AUGUST — THE SECOND WEEK 

Drying, of course, is a very necessary process in 

the proper keeping of one of the garden staples 

onions. They should be cured on the field if the 
weather permits, and then stored for the winter where 
three essential things can be assured — ventilation, 
dryness and a non-freezing temperature. As soon 
as the onions are pulled spread them on the ground 
in the sun, covering them night and morning to keep 
off dampness. Pick out all the imperfect thick 
necks, the soft and immature ones, and throw out all 
the loose skins, because these things themselves won't 
keep and may impair the perfect onions. 

When thoroughly cured pack in crates made of 
wooden slats far enough apart to assure circulation 
of air, and then still further assure ventilation by 
placing each crate on sticks so that there will be 
plenty of open space beneath it. 

In other words, use the same methods for keep- 
ing your small quantity of home-grown onions for 
the family table that the commercial grower uses. 
It pays. The groceryman will give you the crate. 



245 



CHAPTER XXIV 

A U G U S T T HE THIRD WEEK 

Making a lawn should be the starting operation of 
every gardener's efforts to have his place in the 
country or the suburb something worth while on the 
score of looks. The best cultivated and most pro- 
ductive garden back of the house will hardly excuse 
a weedy, scraggly looking front yard. But, strange 
as it may seem, the two things often are found to- 
gether — the good garden and the poor lawn or no 
lawn at all. 

As a matter of fact the lawn should come first, 
especially if you have moved out of town for the pur- 
pose of getting more enjoyment out of life. To do 
anything in the way of new trees, shrubberies or even 
flowers before the grass plat is satisfactorily estab- 
lished is as Illogical as hanging the pictures before 
the walls are papered or painted. 

There is no better time for this lawn making than 
^46 



AUGUST — THE THIRD WEEK 

late August. Garden work is pretty well cleaned 
up. Now get at the grass and take plenty of time 
to do the thing right the first time, to get a lawn 
that will last for generations and improve in appear- 
ance each year. We hear a lot about the wonderful 
English lawns. One of the chief reasons why they 
are wonderful is that they are many years old and 
have never been neglected. 

For the lawn seed go to the nearest reliable seeds- 
man and tell liim what your special conditions are as 
to soil, the amount of shade and slopes. Nearly 
every seedsman will tell you that his particular mix- 
ture of lawn seed is the best. They are all very much 
alike. But make some distinction in your buying 
between grass for the wide open stretches and for the 
places under trees where there is deep shade. There 
are varieties of seed for both shade and the open, so 
do not waste time and impair the future appearance 
of the place by putting one sort of grass where an- 
other sort would do much better. There are also 
varieties of lawn grass with specially long roots. 
Get one of these for any steep terrace there may be, 
as it will withstand washing out much better. 

Perhaps the best thing to do as a preliminary is to 
247 



AUGUST — THE THIRD WEEK 

go to the man who has the best-looking lawn in the 
neighbourhood, whose soil conditions are the same as 
jours, and ask him just how he did it, where he got 
his seed and what kind. 

If the lawn is to be the setting it should be for 
the house it must fulfil three conditions: Refresh- 
ing colour, pleasing contour and satisfying extent. 
The greenness and velvety appearance of the grass 
plat, of course, are due directly to the quality of the 
seed used and to the preparation of the soil for it. 
As already said the selection of the seed, with the ad- 
vice of the neighbour or the dealer, is a simple mat- 
ter, but the preparation of the soil is just as im- 
portant — more so, if anything, and more compli- 
cated. 

Around suburban dwellings the real-estate dealer 
usually looks after the establishment of something 
that passes for a lawn in the eyes of the prospective 
home buyer as one of the assets of the property. 

The city man, lured from his apartments, can, at 
the outset, look with delight upon the apparently 
promising greensward on his newly acquired prem- 
ises. He does not realise then that with the first 
heat of summer his lawn will begin to burn up and 

248 



AUGUST — THE THIRD WEEK 

that after a drought it will be an unsightly brown 
patch, which before another season must be labour- 
iously and perhaps expensively renewed if there is to 
be any lawn at all the second year. 

Grading and building operations and cellar dig- 
ging for the house itself — with the consequent un- 
avoidable bringing of more or less subsoil to the sur- 
face and the littering of the ground with fragments 
of bricks, mortar, splinters of wood and bits of 
roofing tin and other building materials — make 
the land about the house pretty poor lawn soil. The 
mere taking off of the rubbish that has not been 
buried a few inches underground, and the scattering 
of some seed, may be sufficient under these conditions 
to put a temporary covering of grass on the lot for 
real-estate advertising purposes; but investigate 
with a spade before you assure yourself that the work 
of making the real lawn has not all been left for you. 
If you build a house of your own see to it that the 
grading is done right in the beginning. 

To be ideal the lawn soil must have a good supply 
of moisture always available for the grass roots. 
It must even up its own needs by the ability to drain 
off excess water in wet weather and to supply stored- 

M9 



AUGUST — THE THIRD WEEK 

up moisture from underground during the long dry 
spells. This quality in a lawn soil is far more im- 
portant than the kind of seed sown or the choice of 
a fertilizer. Once establish this proper balance of 
moisture and all the other things necessary to that 
lawn will be added unto it. 

The other essentials, that will take care of them- 
selves to a very large extent if the water supply and 
the drainage are what they should be, are proper 
bacterial activity, aeration and oxidation, soil sani- 
tation, and the supply of plant food. One can judge 
from that list how vital this moisture-conserving soil 
is in the making of a lawn. All of which leads up to 
the question: What is the right texture of soil for 
a good lawn.^ Should it be light or heavy, and how 
should it be treated to make it right if it is not so at 
the outset? 

In general the light sandy soils, especially the 
coarser ones, are undesirable for lawns. They do 
not hold the water well enough. The heavier, clayey 
soils or clay loams are much to be preferred. 

These clay soils, however, are more difficult to 
handle and also, as a rule, need plentiful liming to 
keep them from becoming sour and a great amount 

250 



AUGUST — THE THIRD WEEK 

of manure or other organic matter for humus to 
loosen their compact texture. Still, the much bet- 
ter lawn that can be made on such ground justifies 
all the work of preparation. 

If you could order this matter just to suit your- 
self you would have a top soil of rich loam, with a 
foundation of clay, not so impervious to water that 
there could be no draining off in periods of excessive 
moisture. 

To do the very best thing with the ground you 
have, clean off every scrap of rubbish and get rid of 
the weeds. Then spade or plough to the depth of at 
least eight inches. If the place is big enough to 
justify the use of the plough it will be well worth while 
to follow it with a subsoil plough to break up the 
ground to a greater depth and add to the precaution 
against lack of both moisture and drainage. If the 
soil is thin incorporate a generous supply of old 
barnyard manure in it by spreading it on the surface 
and then turning it under. 

The next operation is with the rake on the small 
place and the harrow on the big one. There cannot 
be too much of this fining process. The more Tak- 
ings or harrowings the better. Hauling a drag of 

251 



AUGUST — THE THIRD WEEK 

brush back and forth over the place will help, too, 
and after that use a smoothing board and roll the 
surface. 

If at the beginning the soil has produced a crop 
of the weed known as five-finger, or if it has patches 
covered ^vith a greenish, moss-like growth, that is a 
pretty good sign that there is too much acid in the 
ground for grass growing. Remedy that defect by 
working in a couple of bushels of lime for an area 
about twenty feet square. As a further precaution 
do not neglect to test the soil for sourness by means 
of the strip of blue litmus paper. Acidity is too 
easily remedied to allo\<^ the continuance of it to 
nullify all the operations of soil preparation and 
enrichment. For inunediately available plant food 
to supplement the supply in the bam3^ard manure 
that has been ploughed under — partly as fertilizer 
but principally to loosen up the soil — here is the 
best chemical formula for a lawn twenty feet 
square: A mixture of one pound each of nitrate of 
soda, bone meal, acid phosphate and muriate of 
potash. 

After the soil has been deeply dug, amply enriched 
and thoroughly pulverized on the surface, sow the 

252 



AUGUST — THE THIRD WEEK 

seed. Let it be honestly cleaned and recleaned seed 
that is guaranteed, for the lawn is to be for all time. 
The mistakes in its construction are not like those in 
the vegetable garden — for a season only — and one 
mistake to be guarded against is getting seed that 
is full of weed possibilities. 

Sow two quarts of tKe seed mixture for every 
twenty-by-twenty-foot area. It is best to sow one 
quart while walking back and forth north and south 
and the other quart while going east and west. 
That assures a more thorough and even distribution 
of the seed. Try to do the planting just before a 
shower. 

After sowing go over the plat again with a rake 
or light harrow to make sure that every seed is 
covered, and then roll to compact and smooth the 
surface. With such thorough preparation of the 
soil and care in the selection of honest seed of the 
varieties best adapted to the needs of your particular 
place you should get a good start on your grass be- 
fore growth stops for the winter and by next sum- 
mer there will be a lawn that is a lawn. A coating 
of barnyard manure spread on the surface for the 
winter and raked off in the spring will be a great 

253 



AUGUST — THE THIRD WEEK 

help. It will be an added protection against winter- 
killing in a severe season, and the plant food from 
the manure that will leach into the soil with snow 
and rain water will increase the richness of the 
ground. 

In the spring the surface must be thoroughly 
rolled again to counteract the loosening effect of the 
heaving of the soil that comes with the alternate 
thawing and freezing which mark the end of winter 
and the approach of the mud season. Without this 
spring rolling the lawn will become lumpy and uneven 
and much of the grass will be apt to die because of 
exposure of the roots. Cutting next spring should 
begin when the grass is about two inches high. It 
should be kept at about that height by weekly cut- 
ting throughout the summer. That is short enough 
for looks and grass shorter than that on the ordi- 
nary lawn is apt to suffer from exposure of roots 
to the sun. 

Do not rake off the cuttings. Allow them to rot 
on the surface and gradually become a benefit to 
the soil by giving back to it the plant food that they 
have used. Do not mow during periods of long-con- 
tinued drought unless you can furnish an ample sup- 

254 



AUGUST — THE THIRD WEEK 

ply of water for the grass by means of hose or 
sprinklers. 

Perhaps you already have a lawn that is pretty 
good on the whole, but bad In spots — not bad 
enough to justify the digging up of the whole thing 
for a new start, but enough of a defect to make you 
feel a trifle apologetic when a caller comes round 
to look at your vegetable garden and flowers. In 
that case first learn what the trouble is. If it is 
too much shade get the seed adapted for such a spot. 
Test for acidity. 

Maybe the soil at that particular spot was not pre- 
pared properly at the outset. When the trouble is 
understood apply the remed}'^, even to the extent of 
digging up the particular place that has made a 
bad showing and treating it as if j^ou were making 
an entire new lawn, regrading and adding new soil. 

Keep the lawn a lawn after taking all the neces- 
sary pains to get it. Don't chop it up with need- 
less paths and fancy flower beds. True landscape 
work consists of a lawn that suggests spaciousness 
and of trees and shrubs and flowers to mark the bor- 
ders or forai groups in the comers, to form a vista 
or conceal an undesirable outlook. 

255 



AUGUST — THE THIRD WEEK 

So far as possible give to the lawn or even the 
suburban grass plat the effect of extended area. See 
to it that necessary paths are enough lower than the 
general level to be invisible a few feet away, so they 
will not break the green expanse as you look across. 
And let the general contour of the lawn be convex 
— never concave — a gentle slope from house to 
road in proportion to the distance between the two. 



^56 



CHAPTER XXV 

AUGUST THE FOURTH WEEK 

Looking ahead for a period of years, plus considera- 
tion of the four seasons of every one of those years, 
is an essential preliminary to the planting of vines 
and shrubs and evergreens about your house and 
grounds, if such planting is to be permanently sat- 
isfactory. It is not a case of sticking something 
into the ground that will serve its purpose of pro- 
ducing food or blossoms within a few months and 
then be over with, never to be repeated in that par- 
ticular spot if it has been a failure. 

Permanent planting is as important as getting 
the house itself right. So don't jump at con- 
clusions. Don't plant a particular bush or tree 
for no better reason than that somebody else has 
done it. Don't plant a particular shrub that you 
know is beautiful in the spring, until you know what 
it looks like in the fall and winter. Perhaps some- 

257 



AUGUST — THE FOURTH WEEK 

thing else, just as beautiful in the spring, has the 
added advantage of displaying wonderful scarlet ber- 
ries all winter or a remarkable foliage that is worth 
while In itself, independently of the early blossoms. 

If there are no trees and shrubs about the place 
when you take possession that is, in a way, an ad- 
vantage. What you miss in shade and appearance 
for the first year or so is offset by the fact that you 
have a clean slate to begin with ; that you can create 
your own surroundings; that you can make your 
place, for years to come, the expression of your own 
ideas and those of the family. It should be a family 
affair anyway. The members of the household 
should constitute a sort of home Department of 
Parks, with the man or woman best fitted for the 
job acting as commissioner, to carry out the agreed- 
upon plan. 

Get a map of the place, front and back, in your 
head and sketch it on a sheet of paper. Sketch it 
many times. Get your distances as firmly fixed in 
your mind as the alphabet is — if you went to school 
in the days when the alphabet was of some account. 

Visualize every nook and corner of the grounds as 
you see them from the road, from the back steps, 

^58 



AUGUST — THE FOURTH WEEK 

from the front porch, from this and that window; 
as they look when the ground is covered with snow, 
when, the buds are swelling, when the autumn col- 
ouring is at its height. 

Go into the woods and the fields, in all four sea- 
sons, to look over the goods that Nature has to offer 
free of charge if jou will dig them up and take them 
home; and consider this source of supply as well as 
the cultivated rows of the nurseryman before mak- 
ing the final decisions and purchases. 

You can, for example, buy a pretty good dog- 
wood tree from the commercial grower for two or 
three dollars, but you can get one just as good from 
the edge of the woods for nothing, and it means more 
to you after you have got it. Every season there- 
after, when that dogwood blossoms, you ^qll tell how 
you went out into the woods and dug that tree your- 
self. As you get old your children and grandchil- 
dren will sit round on the porch spring evenings, 
watching the level, flower-laden branches of the dog- 
wood tree that look like shafts of moonlight against 
the dark background of the evergreen foliage, and 
wait for your annual story, knowing that it is sure 
to come. In the course of years, cither with your 



AUGUST — THE FOUKTH WEEK 

own telling or with the handing of the story down by 
the next generation, a dangerous snake will glide 
into that tale, or a terrific tempest, with the tree 
right next to the dogwood stinick by lightning while 
you were at work, and everybody will believe it. So 
the place will have a tradition as well as a tree — 
and every family should have traditions. 

But mere planning and dreaming about the mat- 
ter will not plant the trees and shrubs. There is a 
digging period as well. If the place is hilly don't be 
too eager to level away every knoll there is for the 
sake of getting the conventional flat lawn, with 
hedges round the border and shrubberies in the 
comers. The very unevenness of the ground, if 
treated properly, may develop into one of the chief 
sources of its charm and attractiveness. That is 
one of the problems you must solve for yourself be- 
fore the final adoption of your plan. 

Trees that are to grow large, like the pines, must 
not be crowded. If the upper branches finally come 
in contact one of the trees is going to suffer, per- 
haps die. Neither should such a tree be placed 
where it will eventually touch a building or reach 
too close to it. That would mean the dying out of 

860 



AUGUST — THE FOURTH WEEK 

the tree on the side toward the house. If such a 
tree is to live on for generations and be a greater 
ornamental asset each year it must have a wide area, 
preferably a lawn, that it will eventually shade and 
dominate. 

The proper business of the vine is not only to be 
beautiful itself but to hide something that is not 
beautiful, no matter how useful and necessary it 
may be. It is time enough to make pergolas and 
other supports of vines, if you really want them, 
after a good start has been made in trailing the ivy 
or Virginia creeper or wistaria over the barn and 
woodshed and such other service buildings as there 
may be on the premises. 

For the general layout of the grounds there are 
two things to consider broadly, each of them sub- 
ject to many subdivisions. These are the utilities 
and the assthetic things. Under the first head come 
your path and roadways, the tennis court and 
croquet ground, the vegetable and flower gardens 
and, for the sake of appearances throughout the 
country, it would do no harm to include the space 
for that homely but necessary business of hanging 
out the week's wash. 

261 



AUGUST — THE FOURTH WEEK 

Let the clothes yard be a close-cut lawn, for the 
sake of cleanliness, and then inclose It with a high 
hedge or a continuous arbour covered with a vine. 
The community as well as the family should be con- 
sidered in the laying out of a place. When Arnold 
Bennett was being shown about this country one of 
the things that struck him was the very general 
clothes-line display. To express his opinion of it 
he parodied a line from a famous poem and spoke of 
" the short and simple flannels of the poor." 

Paths and roadways should be direct and take 
up no more space than is necessary to serve as a 
means of getting somewhere. Don't curve a path 
merely for the sake of having it curve. If you are 
set on having something other than the short, straight 
line, put a tree or a bush in that line so there will 
be a real excuse for having the path make a turn 
from its natural course. 

Privacy out-of-doors is another thing to be 
sought in the planning, and that arrangement of 
the hedges and shrubberies should be such that 
there Is at least one space where the family can en- 
joy the delight of a meal in the open air without 
the passing public's having to know, in spite of it- 



AUGUST^THE FOURTH WEEK 

self, whether the roast beef is rare or well done, 
whether the small boy of the household has or has not 
yet acquired good table manners, and whether the 
old man can carve a chicken without looking things 
that he ought not to say, either in the house or out 
of it. 

Under the head of the aesthetic comes the general 
ornamental effect of the w^hole plantation, as seen 
from the road and the house, and the quality of each 
separate shrub and tree to satisfy your love of and 
interest in leaves and flowers and bark. Both of 
these requirements are to be fulfilled by the right se- 
lections, and there are countless combinations that 
will do it. 

Here is one such combination that would fill a 
space of from 225 to 250 square feet, without special 
references to the shape of the plat. It may be round, 
square, rectangular or, best of all, somewhat irreg- 
ular. The general rule in this group planting of 
shrubs and small trees for mass effect is to de- 
termine approximately the number of plants by di- 
viding the total number of square feet by 12 or 15. 
That would give about sixteen separate pieces for 
the area: 

^63 



AUGUST— THE FOURTH WEEK 

One forsythia bush One spiraea Thunbergii 

Two golden philadelphi One dogwood 

One laurus benzoin One English hawthorn 

Three plants of the bush One viburnum dentatum 

honeysuckle of different One viburnum tomentosum 

colors of foliage One weigela, Eva Rathke 

One spiraea Van Houttei Two tamarisks 

Such a combination would give white, yellow, pink 
and crimson in the flower colours. It would pro- 
vide for bright berries in the winter and a fine show 
of foliage between flowering time and the falling of 
the leaves, and there are some attractive barks in 
the collection. There are other groupings that 
would give a more gorgeous colour show for a small 
fraction of the year, but that is not all there is to 
the permanent shrubbery planting. The flower gar- 
dens are for colour primarily. The other things 
are for winter as well as summer. 

All of the plants in the above list may be set out 
in late September or in October or early next spring 
— any time, in fact, when the plants themselves are 
dormant and the ground is workable. 

The soil should be prepared for them with as much 
care as you would prepare the ground for the vege- 
table or flower garden. For thoroughness the ideal 
way is to spade the required area to a depth of three 

264 



AUGUST — THE FOURTH WEEK 

feet. If the soil is good to that depth it can all go 
back with a liberal supply of barnyard manure in- 
corporated in it. If it is not good it will pay in 
the end to put in good ground from some other part 
of the place. One-sixth of the total mass put back 
after the spading ought to be manure. To save 
time this may be put in in two or three layers, but 
it is better to work it all through the soil. Such 
preparation is going to store up a supply of rich 
plant food for a long time to come, immediately 
available for the roots. The digging up of the 
place, instead of merely making holes for the sep- 
arate plants, is going to assure good tilth that will 
conserve moisture and give the plants the very best 
of conditions under which to get a good start. 

Supplementary fertilizing will be needed, of course, 
every year and this is best obtained by mulching 
the ground late in the fall with a heavy coating of 
manure and digging it in the spring. Cultivation 
is also necessary through the growing season, just 
as it is in the ordinary garden. And the annual 
care must include careful pruning. Remember that 
the only time to prune a flowering shrub is imme- 
diately after its blossoming period is over. Also re- 
member not to cut out the berry-bearing parts. 

265 



CHAPTER XXVI 

SEPTEMBER 

When to pick the fruit, and what to do with it to 
get the greatest good from it for the longest time, 
are two of the problems incidental to the fruit gar- 
den almost as important as the matters of planting, 
cultivating, pruning and spraying. To do all the 
preliminary things as they should be done, and then 
to impair the flavour and keeping qualities of the 
crop by not knowing one or two little tricks of the 
harvesting and preserving, is unfortunate. Yet it 
frequently happens. Of course for immediate use 
— for eating as you stand under the tree or vine 
entertaining a friend and showing off your garden, 
or for fresh fruit at the table — the obvious rule 
to pick when just ripe needs no setting forth. 

But that is only part of the game. If the fruit 
garden is anything of a success it will produce enough 
to last over for the following year if properly put up. 

266 



SEPTEMBER 

So the rules are necessary. Grapes, for example, 
should be picked when not more than three-quarters 
ripe for one purpose, when fully ripe for another, be- 
cause of chemical changes that come with the develop- 
ment of the fruit. Pears may be kept for weeks, 
sometimes until Christmas, in their natural form as 
fresh fruit if they are handled right, and this without 
loss of flavour. 

To accomplish this pick the pears when they are 
firm and of good colour, but long before they are 
ripe enough to eat. Wipe each one clean and dry 
and wrap separately in pieces of oiled paper. Then 
put them away in a dark, dry, cool place; and you 
will have fresh pears to eat for a long time before it 
is necessary to open the first jar of those that you 
have preserved or pickled. 

September sees the close of the greater part of the 
season's canning, pickling and preserving. Grapes, 
late blackberries, pears, peaches and quinces com- 
plete the list of fruits other than the ever-useful 
apple. It is the apple that saves the situation when 
other fruits are a failure, for with sweet apples 
pickled after the rule of our grandmothers' apple 
butter, and a stock of canned apple sauce, together 

^67 



SEPTEMBER 

with a winter's supply of Baldwins or other good 
keepers in the cellar, there is no reason why the family 
should not have an ample and wholesome fruit ad- 
dition to its diet all through cold weather. If you 
happen to be raising your first pig for your own 
roast pork 3^ou will, of course, not make the almost 
criminal mistake of not having your own apple 
sauce to go with it. 

Then there is the homemade cider to drink and for 
the pies, also the cider jelly to go with cold meats, 
as useful by-products of the tree or trees. When 
there is an off-year with the fruit be sure to save 
the windfalls. They are just as good for cider and 
for apple sauce as hand-picked fruit. 

The later peaches, which are not so mellow or full 
flavoured as the early ones, are best spiced. The 
same is true^ of many varieties of coarse-fibred, 
rather insipid pears. The pears must be peeled, but 
the peaches need only have the " wool " thoroughly 
w4ped off. The following pickling rule is equally 
good for peaches, pears, quinces, blackberries or 
sweet apples : 

7 pounds of fruit 

4 pounds of granulated sugar 

^68 



SEPTEMBER 

IV2 cups vinegar — dilute if very sharp 
114 ounces whole cinnamon 
1/4 ounce clove; or one clove stuck into each fruit 

The spices should be sewed into a muslin bag and 
suspended in the kettle to prevent too great darken- 
ing of the sjrup. Put the vinegar and sugar and 
spices on to boil until the sugar is dissolved to form 
the syrup. Then add the fruit and after it has boiled 
up well draw back on the range and allow to simmer 
slowly until the fruit is thoroughly cooked. It will 
be tender and finely seasoned, the flavour of course 
growing richer the longer the fruit remains in the 
spiced syrup. 

The old way was to keep these spiced fruits in 
stone crocks, but it is better to keep them in glass 
quart jars which hold the right amount for a family's 
use. This does away with the continual stirring 
over of the fruit every time it is taken from a crock 
and the consequent broken pieces caused by many 
handlings. 

Here is a recipe for peach marmalade that is worth 
trying: Pare and cut the fruit. To every pound 
of peaches add three-quarters of a pound of sugar. 
Put the fruit and sugar into a porcelain-lined kettle 

^69 



SEPTEMBER 

and let it come to a boil. Then draw the kettle to 
a cooler part of the stove and add the juice and 
shredded pulp of a medium-sized, very ripe pineapple 
and the juice of two lemons. These quantities are 
enough for a twelve-quart kettle of fruit. Cook this 
several hours until it becomes a thick, pulpy mar- 
malade, taking special care that it does not burn. 
Pack the mixture in glass jars and seal them with 
paraffin. 

For grape jelly the following rule has been used 
with great success for four generations in at least 
one family: Pick the grapes when they are about 
three-quarters ripe. Stem and wash them and put 
into a granite kettle. As the fruit heats crush it 
with a wooden potato masher. Boil the crushed fruit 
gently for half an hour and then pour the whole — 
juice, skins and pulps — into a cheesecloth bag of 
double thickness which has been moistened in cold 
water. Let the juice drain through the mesh of the 
cloth overnight into a kettle. Measure it in the 
morning and for every pint of grape juice allow a 
pound of granulated sugar. Put the sugar in gran- 
ite pans, place in a moderate oven until thoroughly 
heated. Meanwhile put the juice in the kettle over 

270 



SEPTEMBER 

the ifire and boil for twenty minutes. Then add the 
sugar gradually, stirring it as it goes in to quicken 
the process of dissolving. Let the sweetened juice 
boil up again and then skim it. For a test take out 
a teaspoonful and chill it on ice to see if it " jells." 
The less the mixture cooks after adding the sugar the 
better the jelly will be in colour and flavour; so as 
soon as it shows a tendency to thicken on the ice turn 
it quickly into the chilled jelly tumblers. Cover 
them with clean paper until the jelly hardens, then 
seal with parafl5n. 

The reason unripe fruit is required for the jelly is 
found in the pectin, a carbohydrate somewhat similar 
in its properties to starch and found in all fruits. It 
is the pectin that makes the juice stiffen into jelly 
when equal quantities of the juice and sugar are 
boiled together. This pectin is most active before 
the fruit is ripe. It loses its power of gelatin- 
izing wdth complete ripeness or if the juice and 
sugar are allowed to ferment or are cooked too 
long. 

Another point to remember with reference to this 
pectin is that grapes and other fruits to be used in 
jelly making should not be picked immediately after 

271 



SEPTEMBER 

a rain, for they absorb much water which dissolves 
the pectin before it has a chance to do the work of 
hardening the product. For the same reason any 
necessary washing of the fruit should be done as 
quickly and with as little water as possible before 
the jelly making begins. 

Putting up jelly is not such a risky or painstaking 
job as the canning of fruits or vegetables, because 
jelly is so rich in sugar that it is practically immune 
to bacteria and yeasts. But it must be well pro- 
tected against the spores of mould and against evap- 
oration. Here are different ways of accomplishing 
the same thing: Prepare rounds of thick white 
paper, the size of the top of the glass, and dip them 
in brandy or alcohol. Also brush over the top of the 
jelly itself, as soon as it is hardened in the glass, with 
alcohol or brandy and then cover with the dipped 
paper circles. If there are no metal or glass covers 
for the jelly tumblers cut another set of paper circles 
with the diameter half an inch larger than those of 
the tops of the glasses, so they will overlap all round 
and admit of being pasted down to the sides of the 
glass. To get the paste beat up the white of an 
egg to which has been added a tablespoonful of cold 

2^72 



SEPTEMBER 

water. Another way is to dip the paper covers in 
olive oil and then tie them on to the glasses. 

The paper dipped in alcohol really makes a safer 
cover than paraffin, because the alcohol destroys any 
mould spores that may be on the jelly when it is put 
up. If they happened to be there when paraffin 
covers were put on they would simply develop under 
the casing and spoil the whole jar. Of course there 
is no objection to taking the double precaution of 
having brandy-soaked paper on the jelly and the 
paraffin over that. If paraffin is used alone let the 
coating be at least a quarter of an inch thick, for 
as it cools it contracts and if the layer is too thin 
it will crack and expose the surface of the jelly. 

STORING OF ROOT CROPS. 

Whether or not the first cost of fixing the cellar 
so that it is suitable for the storing of vegetables 
is more than offset within the first winter by the 
saving on the household food expense account de- 
pends, of course, upon the amount of carpentering 
or masonry work that must be done and upon how 
many vegetables the family uses between growing 
seasons. 

S7S 



SEPTE]\IBER 

That it will pay, and pay well, in dollars and cents 
in the long run to raise in your own garden enough 
vegetables and fruit for the entire year and to have 
a satisfactory place for the storing of the root crops, 
the celery, cabbage and apples, there is no question. 
It pays from the very outset in the immense satis- 
faction in being a real producer, even if the consumers 
of the product are limited to the circle about your 
own dinner table. It means a greater abundance 
of vegetables and fruit, a much greater variety, and 
far and away better quality than when everything is 
bought. 

That patch of ground back of the house becomes 
mwch more than a place for exercise and diversion 
or a source of summer and autumn table delicacies. 
It remains all of that and becomes, in addition, a 
very real factor in the cost of real living. 

Tliere are three essentials for the successful stor- 
ing of fruits and vegetables — dryness, good ventila- 
tion and the temperature best suited to the particular 
thing stored. Unfortunately the same tempera- 
ture is not the best for all things. If it were the 
problem would be simpler. Sweet potatoes, for in- 
stance, should be kept in a dry, comparatively warm 

274 



SEPTEMBER 

room, with a temperature of between fifty-five and 
sixty degrees — about the same amount of warmth 
required for the raising of mushrooms. But that, 
of course, is altogether too warm for the white po- 
tato or any of the other root crops. 

On the other hand, good winter-keeping apples of 
the tliick-skinned varieties will do well in a tempera- 
ture a trifle below freezing. Northern-grown, hardy 
apples — the Spitzenburgh, for example — may be 
frozen hard without material harm if they are kept 
frozen till they are waiited and then thawed very 
gradually. 

It is between these extremes of the sweet potato 
and the very hardy apple that the safe average 
temperature for nearly everything is found. The 
ideal would be just above freezing, but if you can 
maintain an average of anywhere between thirty-two 
and forty degrees you have an excellent storage place 
so far as temperature is concerned. But it must be 
dry, too, and have good ventilation. 

After providing these three requirements there is 
another thing fully as important — the quality and 
condition of the product that is to be stored. It 
should be sorted out and selected with as much care, 

275 



SEPTE]\IBER 

as much rigid rejection of the imperfect, as you 
would exercise in making up an exhibit of fruit or 
vegetables for showing at your county fair or in 
filling a gift basket for a friend. Not a single fruit 
or vegetable that is bruised or soft or cut or in the 
least aifected by plant disease should be given place 
in the storage quarters, for one imperfect piece may 
cause the spoiling of the whole lot. 

Possibly your cellar is all right as it is to answer 
the purpose, or can be made so with very little tink- 
ering. Such a simple thing as wrapping with as- 
bestos the steam or hot-air or hot-water pipes be- 
tween the top of the furnace and where they go 
through the cellar ceiling ma}^ be all that is necessary 
to reduce the cellar temperature to the required de- 
gree, and incidentally to give you more heat upstairs. 
Or the desired results may be obtained by nothing 
more expensive and elaborate than a cloth screen or 
a partition of light wood to separate the section 
chosen for the vegetables from the furnace and coal 
bins. 

Onions are perhaps hardest to keep successfully 
through the winter. The manner of harvesting is of 
great importance. The onions must be pulled 

276 



SEPTEMBER 

promptly as soon as they mature — that is, as soon 
as most of the tops begin to wither and turn yellow. 
Onions in the same row vary more or less in the time 
of maturing, but a few green ones will not matter. 
The onions from three or four rows may be heaped 
together in a windrow to cure for a week or ten or 
twelve days. 

If one is reasonably sure of clear, dry weather 
the onions are best left right on the ground, where 
the curing process may be hastened by occasional 
gentle stirring with a wooden rake. Be sure that 
the stirring is gentle and the rake a wooden one, for 
the slightest bruising of the bulbs, especially of the 
white varieties, causes them to decay rapidly and 
the most careful storing will not save them. Thor- 
ough curing prevents sprouting, and careful han- 
dling prevents decay, so these two precautions are 
essential. 

It is best to top the bulbs when ready to store, leav- 
ing about an inch of the stem. The ordinary cellar is, 
as a rule, too moist for the safe keeping of onions. 
Bins or boxes in a frost-proof shed or barn, or a dry 
loft, should prove satisfactory. The temperature 
must never drop to freezing, but on the other hand 

^77 



SEPTEjMBER 

it should never rise more than two or three degrees 
above it. On bright days, when it is not too cold, 
the windows should be opened for ventilation, care 
being taken never to let the sun strike directly on the 
bins where the onions are stored. 

In the matter of onions you may get one of the best 
hints from the commercial packages in the stores. 
The vegetables are packed in crates of light wood 
strips that afford ample ventilation. There is no 
better way of putting up the supply from the home 
garden. When the crates are put into the storage 
room raise them from the floor of the bin and separate 
them from each other by blocks of wood placed 
under the ends so that the circulation of dry air may 
be through the bottom of the crate as well as through 
the sides. 

With the cellar temperature and ventilation what it 
should be, there is no better way for the successful 
keeping of the potato crop than to spread the tubers 
out in the bottom of a wooden bin, raised a foot or 
two from the floor. The thinner they are spread the 
better, the ideal condition being to have no potato 
touch another. Twelve bushels — a good winter 
supply for a family of four moderate potato eaters 

^78 



SEPTEMBER 

— may be stored in comparatively small space, and 
as the quantity diminishes the lot may be spread out 
thinner. 

If your crop of celery is small, and you expect it 
to last only through the late fall, it will be necessary 
only to heap the earth round the base of the plants 
in the garden, leaving them thus exposed until real 
danger of hard frost. Celery will stand very cold, 
frosty weather without coming to harm, but once it 
actually freezes its flavour is spoiled. 

When freezing weather is at hand the earth must 
be heaped closely up to the very tops of the plants, 
until it almost covers them, and as the days be- 
come even more severe this ridge of banked celery 
should be well covered with coarse straw or stable 
manure held in place by boards or stakes. Do not 
use decaying leaves for banking or let any manure 
come in contact with the stalks, for celery readily 
absorbs odours that are present in the storage place, 
and its edible qualities may thus be ruined. 

Another way of storing celery out-of-doors is that 
known as trenching. A narrow, shallow trench is 
dug, and as soon as there is danger of heavy frost 
the celery is dug and placed with the roots bunched 

279 



SEPTEMBER 

close together in this trench, the sides of which should 
be inclosed with two parallel rows of blanching 
boards. The earth is now heaped up on both sides 
and a covering of boards or straw put on over the 
whole. 

Where celery is kept out-of-doors the natural cir- 
culation of air through the trench from end to end 
should be regulated with reference to the wind and 
outdoor temperature. On warm days both ends of 
the trench should be opened. On days of extreme 
cold both ends should be closed with straw and earth. 
On moderate days the end opposite that from which 
the wind is blowing should be opened. 

If the cellar is cool and dry you may safely ven- 
ture to store your winter's celery supply there. The 
temperature, however, must be very low and the ven- 
tilation good if you expect satisfactory results. 
When using the cellar for storage take up the plants 
with most of the roots attached and set them in 
a deep bed of moist sand. 

Cabbage and turnips should not be kept in the house 
cellar for the reason that they are liable to decay and 
become offensive, if not even dangerous to the family 
health. The winter's supply of these two vegetables 

280 



SEPTEMBER 

can best be kept in boxes half buried in the garden. 
Choose compact, perfect heads of cabbage, and handle 
with care to avoid bruising. In the same way choose 
the firmest and most perfect of the hardy turnips, 
and then take pains to keep their surfaces unbroken. 
The storage boxes should be sunk fully half their 
depth in a dry part of the garden, and then the bot- 
toms of the boxes covered with some six inches of dry 
earth, on which the vegetables are placed heads down 
and covered with from six to ten inches of soil. This 
covering is put on lightly at first to avoid heating, 
and may remain so until severe weather is at hand. 
Then a good covering of straw or coarse manure 
should be added. 

With a little more digging the boxes or barrels 
may be eliminated from the cabbage-storing arrange- 
ment and this vegetable carried in safety through the 
winter by the trench system alone. Make the trench 
three feet deep, which in any ordinary winter will be 
safe, store the cabbage heads in it and then mound 
up with earth, covering the whole with straw, held 
in place by boards, as an extra precaution. 

Beets, carrots, parsnips and oyster plant may 
be easily kept in a cool, dry cellar if packed care- 

281 



S E P T'E M B E R 

fully in boxes of sand. They must be handled care- 
fully, only perfect ones saved, and then placed so 
that the roots do not touch. 

Squash must be kept in a dry place where one 
can be sure of a uniform temperature of about fifty 
degrees, and even the squash with its thick skin must 
not be handled roughly. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

SEPTEMBE R C O N T I N U E D 

When you think you have made good and sensible 
use of every part of your ground, so far as the 
permanent layout is concerned, think again. The 
chances are that you will find place for another grape- 
vine, perhaps for hali a dozen, thus adding both to 
your crop total and to the general appearance of 
the entire place. Tlie grapevine, well cared for, is 
beautiful as well as fruitful. But for it to be both 
there must be a compromise scheme of give and take 
between the fruit on the one hand and the wood and 
leaf on the other. 

That is a point to remember in planning for the 
grapevine planting. If an arbour is wanted to fur- 
nish shade, or if the \dne is intended to serve as an 
arch the length of a walk or as a screen against a 
wall or to form a summer house with walls and ceil- 
ing of broad green leaves, the grape will serve any 

283 



SEPTEMBER 

or all of these purposes, but it will not produce much 
in the way of full-grown clusters of well-developed 
berries. Its fruits will be incidental — thin, scraggly 
bunches, hanging here and there from the top of 
the arbour, furnishing enough fruit, perhaps, when 
all is gathered, to help out on the jelly making, but 
not much to look at as fresh-gathered for the table. 
That is one extreme — the maximum of shade and 
the minimum of fruit. But if there is plenty of 
room a yard should assuredly have some such grape 
arbour because of its attractii^eness. 

The other extreme is the scientifically pruned and 
trained vine, with its canes cut off and cut back with 
reference only to the best results in the size and 
weight of the fruit clusters. Several such vines as 
this must be on every place if the owner makes any 
pretensions to being the grower of his own fruits and 
\egetables. They are more important than arbours 
and have the first call on the room space if there is 
not enough for both. 

But the sort of vine we had in mind at the outset 
was something in the way of a compromise — an ex- 
tra piece put in here and there as a filler when the 
ground seems to be filled up but really isn't. There 



SEPTEMBER 

is room for one, no doubt, in some awkward comer 
where it will serve its ornamental purpose and still 
admit of enough annual restraint on its wood growth 
to furnish some good fruit too. 

Another vine will make an excellent screen to blot 
out, or at least blur, the too conspicuous view of some- 
thing unsightly on your own or your neighbour's 
land — a chicken coop, for example, made out of an 
old piano box which an amateur poultryman has neg- 
lected to paint. 

In the vegetable garden itself a string of vines can 
be put along the western edge, where they will not 
rob other things of the morning sun, at eight-foot 
intervals. A vine or two on the eastern border will 
not do any harm if the placing of the vegetable plants 
is regulated accordingly. The friendly shade of a 
grapevine has often saved a bed of lettuce or a patch 
of green peas from the July sun. 

That there are about two hundred diiFerent in- 
sect pests that prey upon the grapevine, take it the 
world over, is more than offset in the United States 
by the fact that the worst of those pests are found 
only in the grape-growing regions of the Mediter- 
ranean countries, that the insects prevalent in this 

^85 



SEPTEMBER 

country are easily controlled, that the vine responds 
more readily than other fruit-bearing plants to good 
care and generous food supply, and that it will grow 
almost anywhere. 

There are two very simple methods by which you 
may increase your number of vines from those you 
already have or from some favourite variety of a 
neighbour. Neither way costs more than a very little 
trouble. One method is to reproduce from cuttings ; 
the other is by layering. 

Cuttings may be made this fall, as soon as the vines 
become dormant. Or the preliminary work can be 
done early in the spring. Better do it this fall. 
There will be a thousand and one other things to at- 
tend to in the garden as soon as the new season starts. 
Furthermore the bulk of opinion on the part of the 
big vineyard growers is in favour of fall cutting. 
The writer has vines started from cuttings taken 
from the parent plant at both seasons, and the fall- 
cutting productions seem more thrifty. 

A grape cutting is a length of well-matured last 
season's new wood. A piece eight or ten inches long 
is about right. Select medium-sized wood with short 
joints. Make a slanting cut just below the bottom 

286 



SEPTEMBER 

bud or eye of the piece removed and then trim off 
the upper end, leaving an inch of wood above the up- 
per eye. It will help to have a small piece of the old 
wood left on the lower end. If the cuttings are made 
this fall they may be tied together in a bundle and 
kept in cool, moist sand in the cellar through the 
winter. Or they may be planted outdoors this sea- 
son at any time before the ground freezes, but it is 
safer to postpone the outdoor planting until spring. 
An excellent trick of the commercial grower, which 
you may adopt to advantage, is to put the cuttings 
in the ground but ends up when you trench them 
temporarily. This causes the root ends to callus, 
while the tops remain dormant. Then when they are 
planted in spring the throwing out of roots begins 
immediately and gets ahead of the top growth. If 
this precaution is not taken the tops are apt to begin 
their growth before there is sufficient root. 

When the cuttings are finally set in the ground 
in which they are to have their first year growth they 
should be put in right end up and planted so deep 
that only the top bud is aboveground. Ground 
should be well prepared and made mellow to a depth 
of fourteen inches and then frequently cultivated 

287 



SEPTEMBER 

throughout the first season to assure conservation of 
moisture. Six-inch intervals between the new vines 
are sufficient. After their first year as independent 
plants they will be transferred to the place where 
they are needed in your scheme. 

There is a variation of this plan, called the short- 
cutting method, which requires more pains but which 
some authorities claim produces better vines. One 
of the short-cutting advocates is Prof. S. T. May- 
nard, of the department of horticulture in the Massa- 
chusetts College of Agriculture. The short cutting, 
he says, should consist of a single bud, with only two 
or three inches of wood. It must be rooted in sand 
by the aid of artificial heat. Make the cuttings in 
winter and put them into boxes of sand one or two 
inches apart. Furnish heat in the bottom of the 
box by a layer of fermenting stable manure, or else 
get the same result by placing the box on hot-water 
or steam pipes. The desired temperature of the soil 
in the box is from fifty to sixty degrees, says Prof. 
Maynard, and that of the surrounding air should 
be from forty to forty-five degrees. When well 
rooted the cuttings are transplanted to other boxes 
or, if the danger of frost is. over, to the open ground. 

^88 



SEPTEMBER 

Layering may also be done this fall or in the spring. 
It is the easiest possible way of getting a lot of new 
vines from an old one and it will succeed with more 
varieties of the grape than the cutting method. 

Select a long cane of last year's new wood, starting 
near the base of the trunk of the vine. Dig a trench 
two inches deep from the stem in the direction the 
cane grows and as long as that cane happens to be. 
Then bend the cane over and pin it down in that 
trench for its entire length. About every bud on 
that cane will produce an upward-growing shoot. 
As soon as the shoot starts fill in the trench with soil, 
and then for every shoot a root growth will start 
downward, producing a whole string of new grape 
plants, all getting nourishment from the layered cane 
like a litter of pigs from a sow, as well as from their 
own new roots and tops. When the growth is well 
started the layer is cut between each two new plants, 
and the young vines are taken up separately and 
transplanted. 

A man with a good grapevine from which he wants 
to raise many others, either for himself or to sell or 
give away, can look ahead a season or two, and by 
letting a new shoot grow until it becomes next year's 

289 



SEPTEMBER 

cane he will have the source of another string of vines 
from the desirable stock. 

Supplement the reading of these paragraphs on 
cuttings and layering right now by going out for a 
look at the nearest grapevine. The diiFerence be- 
tween this year's shoots and the canes, which were 
shoots last year, and of the arms and trunk of the 
vine will be very obvious. So also will be the matter 
of eyes or buds and the suitable location of canes for 
layering purposes. 

Successful grafting for grapes is a difficult matter, 
much more so than for the tree fruits ; and with the 
two simple and practically sure methods of cutting 
and layering at your disposal the only excuse for 
adopting the third way of propagation is the com- 
mendable one of wanting to try all the experiments 
that are possible in your garden. 

For grafting purposes the scion should be well- 
ripened, short- jointed wood of medium diameter. If 
any time elapses between the cutting of the scion and 
the operation of grafting it should be kept in a cool 
place where there will be no danger of its drying out. 
Three or four weeks before the union is made cut 
off the stock two inches above the point where the 

290 



SEPTEMBER 

graft is to be made so it may bleed thoroughly. The 
next step is to cut off the stock near the surface of 
the ground — a trifle below the surface if it is desired 
that the grafted part put out roots of its own. 

Make a cleft in the smooth-cut surface, cut the 
lower end of the scion to a smooth wedge, even slants 
on both sides, and then insert it in the cleft, pushing 
the wedge down until the bottom bud is just above 
the cut-ofF surface of the stock. The principal thing 
to look out for is that the inner bark of the scion is in 
contact with the inner bark of the stock. As the scion 
is smaller than the wood into which it is grafted, two 
scions may be put into the same cleft, one on either 
side, so that each will get the absolutely essential 
bark contact. The principal reason for inserting 
two scions is that you double your chances of success 
in an operation that is by no means sure. Wax the 
cut and cover the entire thing with earth as a 
further protection. This grafting may be done in 
the fall. 

Professor Maynard would make the cut on the stock 
below the surface, use no wax, but cover the opera- 
tion with soil up to the top bud of the scion, and 
place over that earth a flower pot. Above the flower 

291 



SEPTEMBER 

pot he puts more earth, a foot of it, and then covers 
that with litter. This is to prevent the ground about 
the graft from freezing. The flower pot is merely 
a protection against rough handling of the scion in 
the spring when the outer covering of earth and litter 
is pulled off. A single bud, he says, grafted in this 
way on a stock less than three-quarters of an inch 
in diaiyieter, made a growth of two canes, each more 
than eight feet long, in its first season. Good fruit 
may be expected the second year. 

To make a very effective chemical fertilizer for 
eight grapevines take one pound of nitrate of soda, 
six pounds of bone meal and fifteen pounds of wood 
ashes; mix them thoroughly and then work into the 
soil around the plants for a distance of four feet. 



^93 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER 

October is no month for loafing in the flower garden. 
What with taking up the tender bulbs to save them 
from winter killing and putting out the hardy bulbs 
to assure early flowering in spring, there is much im- 
portant and interesting work to be done away into 
next month. The time limit for eff^ective work de- 
pends of course upon the date of the first hard frost 
for the region in which the garden is located. 

Not only are hardy bulbs to be put in the ground, 
but practically all the herbaceous plants may now be 
set out to advantage. This applies to the perennials 
— the larkspurs, for example, or the sunflowers, the 
anemones, and practically all the old-fashioned plants. 
The tops of all of them will die down with the first 
severe frost, but the roots will make growth all winter, 
except in the occasional intervals of extreme cold, 

g9S 



OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER 

and will be ready for an early and thrifty start at 
the very outset of spring. To leave the preliminary 
work till spring means that you will then have to 
wait till the ground is sufficiently dried out to work, 
and a very material delay in the getting of blossoms 
will be the result. 

Work with roses offers the exception to the rule, 
although some of the hybrid perpetuals may be set 
out before frost; but even with these it is better to 
wait until spring. 

Some of the bulbs must be removed from the ground 
as soon as their tops die down with the first touch 
of frost — notably the gladioli, the dahlias, the can- 
nas and the tuberous-rooted begonias. These things 
are as tender as oranges and the bulbs will stand no 
frost whatever. They should be taken up and packed 
away for the winter in dry, clean sand, in the cellar, 
where there is no risk of their freezing. 

The montbretia may be left in the ground except 
in the northern parts of the United States, but it 
should be protected with a covering mulch of straw. 
Of course in the Southern states the gladioli and 
dahlias will live in the ground throughout the year 
if heavily mulched, but even here it is better to take 

S94 



OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER 

them up so the}^ may have the complete rest of a 
dormant period. 

Bulbs to be put out this month and next are the 
tulips and the hyacinths, the daffodils, jonquils, and 
the various other narcissi, and the snowdrops, cro- 
cuses, and bulbous-rooted irises. Inasmuch as all 
these will live in the winter in the open ground they 
would also survive through the summer, so the ama- 
teur gardener may naturally ask why take them up 
at all, thus adding to the garden work by removing 
bulbs in early summer after their flowering period 
and restoring them to the ground in the fall. The 
answer, so far as the tulips and hyacinths are con- 
cerned, is that they need a rest. Without taking 
up and transplanting they would be of little use 
after the first year. At best they make a poor show- 
ing after the second or third season, even when re- 
moved and put back each season, so the bulbs of these 
two particular plants should be replaced with new 
ones after three years if the quality and brilliancy 
of the beds are to be maintained. 

In spite of this comparatively short life of the tu- 
lips and hyacinths there are probably hundreds of 
these plants put out the country over as against 

295 



OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER 

dozens of the narcissi, which improve year after year 
the longer they are grown. Furthermore the nar- 
cissi do better if left in the ground undisturbed 
throughout the twelve months. The only reason for 
taking them up is to make room for annuals and to 
provide for rearranging of the spring beds. 

Like the tulips, the Spanish and English irises 
need frequent renewing. The herbaceous iris in- 
creases in quantity and improves in quality as 
the years go on, and it is not necessary to take it 
up. 

Evenness as to depth of planting and uniformity 
of type in the same group are the prime essentials 
in making satisfactory beds of tulips and hyacinths? 
whether they are in borders or more formal designs. 
In the first place let the soil be well prepared and 
thoroughly enriched with manure. It should be 
spaded up for a depth of a foot, made fine through- 
out that distance, and freed of all rubbish and small 
stones which would interfere with the placing of each 
bulb just where it ought tc be to produce its part 
in the effect. 

A continuous display from the earliest to the lat- 
est possible flowering date of the tulip is what you 

^96 



OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER 

want, and the successive groups which fill up the 
season must be made up of plants of the same height. 
Tulip growing has been reduced almost to a mathe- 
matical science, so the exact size wanted is to be had 
for the asking. 

Unless y.ou know all the ins and outs of the mat- 
ter from long personal experience or with the as- 
sistance of an accurately kept personal diary, the 
proper selection of the tulip varieties is a simple 
matter of catalogue reference and consultation with 
an honest dealer. In this way you will get In one 
group the eight-inch tulips, in another the ten-inch, 
in another the plants that lift their flowers a foot 
above the ground. Again you will have in one group 
the early flowering types, to be followed In their re- 
spective weeks by the late-flowering Cottage, Darwin 
and Dragon varieties. After these come most of the 
double flowers. 

Plant the tulip bulbs about four inches under- 
ground. Bury the Iris bulbs about one and a half 
times their own depth. Just cover the hyacinth 
bulbs — not much deeper in the ground than you 
would put onion sets — with their points just show- 
ing. The iris is a weak-stemmed thing and should 

^97 



OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER 

be put among other plants that will help hold it up 
when it begins to make its spring growth. 

None of these bulbs should come in direct contact 
with barnyard manure. If possible have your 
stratum of the enriched soil just below the level at 
which you place the bulbs. If this requires too much 
time and trouble, or if the whole soil is filled with 
manure after your enrichment of the garden through- 
out the summer, you must take the precaution to 
place in the bottom and round the sides of each 
hole a little clean sand or loam as a protection. 

Be sure to avoid manure as a mulch for the hya- 
cinth, becaus-e if it rests upon the crowns of this 
plant it will cause decay. In this whole matter of 
winter mulching there is danger of overdoing. Ex- 
cept in periods of extreme cold the natural soil tem- 
perature of the season is best for nearly all the 
varieties of tulip and hyacinth. At most they need 
only a slight covering of straw or leaves. One ex- 
ception to this rule is the Mariposa tulip. This and 
all the anemones and the midsummer flowering mont- 
bretia should have good protection. 

One more warning against using manure as a 
winter cover : It should not be placed over such her- 

298 



OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER 

baceous plants as the foxglove, Canterbury bells, 
and the madonna lily ; it would surely rot them. 

Root division is the method by which the peony is 
multiplied. Split up the old large root this fall and 
plant the parts not deeper than one or two inches. A 
very common mistake is to set the peony too deep. 
This' is a plant that can be heavily mulched with 
manure, not for winter protection, because it does 
not need that, but to enrich the soil, which it does 
need regularly. 

This rule to split up the root clumps and set the 
parts in different places as soon as the plants have 
done flowering also applies to the autumn-blooming 
asters, the phlox, chrysanthemums, and practically 
all the herbaceous perennials. It may retard the 
blooming of the peony in the first season after the 
root division is made, but it is necessary neverthe- 
less. With the other plants the improvement in 
flowering will show the very next year after the 
splitting up of the big clump. Phlox roots should 
be divided every third year anyway, as soon as frost 
has killed off" the tops, if they are to be at their best. 

The three graces of the autumn flower garden are 
the dahlia, the aster and the chrysanthemum. The 

299 



OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER 

first two require rich soil in which to thrive; the 
last is content with somewhat ordinary ground. 
Each of these plants needs plenty of room for its 
individual growth. It seems a mistake to force these 
particular flowers, as some gardeners do, to obtain 
early blooms. The more desirable method is to re- 
move the early buds and pinch back the blossoms, 
thus reserving their rich colours for the late garden 
bed when other flowers have gone by. 

The dahlia and aster will need some protection as 
the frosty nights draw near, but the chrysanthemum 
will endure a greater degree of cold, and if you are 
so fortunate as to have some of the little, old-fash- 
ioned " button " chrysanthemums they will be bloom- 
ing bravely even when snaw flies. 

When frost has actually nipped the tops of the 
dahlias let the plants remain in the ground another 
week, then dig up the tubers, dry them, and put 
them awa.y in a place that is airy and cool, but also 
dark and dry. In such storage they will keep in 
the best condition for next spring's division and re- 
planting. 

Any flowering plants that one has bean keeping 
in sunken pots in the garden, pinching off^ the buds 

300 



OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER 

as they appear so as to reserve the strength for winter 
blossoms indoors, are better off out of doors until 
actually threatened by freezing. But all bulbs, such 
as tuberoses, cannas and gladioli, must be out of the 
ground and safely stored before freezing weather. 
It remains now for the gardener to do his fall clean- 
irig, raking off old stocks, digging and raking the 
border, which will save valuable time next spring. 
Roses and tender vines must be protected by wrap- 
pings of straw; the newly planted bulb beds should 
have a blanket of litter or leaves sufficient to keep 
out all frost. 

October and November are also full months in the 
business of pruning hedges and the autumn-flower- 
ing shrubs. The rose of Sharon, whether used as a 
hedge or ornamental bush, should be pruned in the 
fall after it has finished blooming. Shortly after 
flowering is over these plants begin to form new wood, 
and it is upon this new wood that the next season's 
blooms will appear. 

Hedge and shrub pruning is based upon the prin- 
ciple that the plants must be allowed all possible 
time between blooming periods ; hence the gardener 
watches closely for his earliest opportunity to prune 

301 



OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER 

as soon as the blossoms are gone, so there may be 
practically a year of new growth before the next 
season.- Of course this principle applies to spring 
as well as to fall shrubs ; for instance the forsythia, 
which is such an early bloomer that it must be pruned 
as soon as the blossoms fall, so it may have until 
the next spring to stock up with new wood upon 
which to hang its golden bells. No reactionary 
tactics will work in shrub pruning. It is off with 
the old and on with the new if you want blooms next 
season. 

Incidentally this pruning, which should be a little 
each year and not a heavy hacking of the plants to 
make up for time lost in previous seasons, is needed 
to keep the plants in symmetrical form. The trim 
clipping of the privet hedge is perhaps our most com- 
mon example ; but to apply such a system of pruning 
to flower shrubs, set singly or in border groups, is 
a mistake. The sight of a syringa bush, for ex- 
ample, sheared bare on its lower branches, while its 
top spreads out broad with an expanse of blossoms 
too high for our plane of vision, is the worst kind of 
a garden blunder; and if your groups of weigelas, 
deutzias and the other favourites are too much 

802 



OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER 

crowded in the corner allotted to them, it is far more 
satisfactory to thin them out by digging some up, 
even if you must sacrifice them bodily, than to at- 
tempt to remedy the situation by pruning the bushes 
low down and getting thereby a display of bare and 
ragged stems. 



SOS 



CHAPTER XXIX 

INDOOR WORK 

With the same sort and quality of plants growing 
in the same kind of soil, under similar conditions as 
to temperature and light ventilation, two persons 
may have very different results. This difference 
seems to be more true of plants growing in the house 
during the winter than of things in the outdoor gar- 
den. Perhaps it is due to the fact that the success 
of the enterprise indoors depends more upon arti- 
ficial aids and less upon natural conditions. The 
personal equation enters into the thing, and failure 
is often expressed by the familiar remark, '"' I can't 
make plants grow for me no matter how hard I try 
or how much attention I give them." 

Try it again this year. It is time now to get 
ready for the inside gardening, by which interest 
in a garden may be carried right through to next 
spring, without any cold-weather break. 

304 



INDOOR WORK 

There is a double source of supply of plants for 
the house — those that you remove from the garden 
and put into pots and the new plants you raise from 
islips or cuttings taken from the parent growths. 
It is well to avail yourself of both in order to get a 
more continuous supply of blossoms. The young 
geranium, for example, which has been out in the 
garden all summer and has been pinched back to save 
its flowering energy, should be potted ; its flowers 
will be among the first to add to the colour of the 
room. For flowers late in the winter depend upon 
the plants that may be fonned now by rooting slips. 
The same rules apply not only to that old house 
favourite, the geranium, but to nearly all the indoor 
plants. 

For cuttings or propagation by slips the methods 
are very simple, diff*ering between the soft-stemmed 
plants a.nd the woody ones in only a few details and 
in the length of time required for getting roots. 
For propagating the herbaceous or soft-stemmed 
plants, such as carnations, chrysanthemums, gera- 
niums, fuchsias and begonias the slips may be made 
from the stem or the leaves. The stem is much 
surer and it is hardly worth while to try the leaves 

305 



INDOOR WORK 

except for the sake of an interesting experiment with 
the begonias. The thick and fleshy begonia leaf is 
sure to form roots when the stem of that leaf is in- 
serted in fine, clean sand or gravel and kept moist. 

Sand should also be used for the stem cuttings 
rather than garden soil, which is likely to cake when 
subjected to indoor conditions, and is also liable 
to be supplied with worm and insect life that will 
be roused into acti^aty by the warmth of the room 
and prey upon the slips. 

Select the cuttings with reference to their hard- 
ness, choosing stems that break easily rather than 
older, tougher parts of the plant which merely bend. 
The younger growth will not only take root more 
quickly in the wet sand, but will throw out much finer 
and more pliable roots, with a capacity for absorbing 
more moisture and plant food. The cutting should 
be taken off* just below a bud or eye of the main plant, 
because a new root system develops more surely at 
one of the joints in the stem structure. Most of the 
leaf growth should be removed from the herbaceous 
slip, as it simply adds to the area from which the 
moisture can evaporate, and thus increases wilting. 

Such easy-going and easy-growing plants as gera- 
306 



INDOOR WORK 

niums, fuclisias and verbenas will strike root In a 
week. Carnations may take a fortnight or more, 
while a month is a fair allowance for the more woody 
specimens, such as roses and azaleas. 

Two inches of sand in a dish is all that is neces- 
sary for starting the slips. Place this in 3'Our sun- 
niest window and keep the sand thoroughly wet every 
day. As soon as a stem takes root and thus be- 
comes a complete plant transfer it to a small pot for 
individual treatment, taking care always to coddle 
it a little for the first few days by protecting it from 
the direct sun and allowing it extra water. 

The second method to get plants for the house is 
to transfer them bodily from the open ground to 
the pots in which they are to pass the winter. Re- 
move the garden soil from the roots as carefully as 
possible, so as not to tear the fine root hairs. It 
is better that the soil for the winter growth should 
be a fresh supply rather than that from the garden. 
The best potting soil is a combination of one-third 
well-rotted barnyard manure and two-thirds clean 
loam. The two parts should be thoroughly mixed, 
and if the whole is well pulverized by being run 
through a coarse sieve so much the better for the 

307 



INDOOR WORK 

plants. Place a layer of broken flower-pot frag- 
ments in the bottom of the pot to provide drainage; 
and it is a good thing to cover these bits of porous 
clay with a thin layer of excelsior to prevent the 
earth from working down into the crevices and clog- 
ging the drain. 

Each plant should have a pot to fit it — that is, 
there should be a margin of an inch and a half or 
two inches between the bottom and sides of the pot 
and the roots. This will give ample room for the 
root system to develop, without allowing it to strag- 
gle too far at the expense of the growth of the plant 
above ground. 

When first set in their pots all plants should have 
a good watering. Afterwards this part of the treat- 
ment should be given with care. Too much moisture 
is as bad as too little, as it will rot the roots. A 
dry surface is not always a sure indication of the 
condition of the soil below. The expert can tell by 
the sound when he taps the outside of the pot with 
a stick, and perhaps you can get the knack by prac- 
tising for a while on earth-filled pots that you 
know are moist all through and on others that are 
dry. 

308 



INDOOR WORK 

A da}^ temperature of from seventy to eighty de- 
grees, with a night temperature about fifteen de- 
grees cooler, is the ideal condition for practically all 
plants grown in the house. 

The chief pests will be the small green aphis and 
the tiny red spider. Get rid of the aphis by sprin- 
kling the plants with snufF or tobacco dust or by 
watering them with a solution of tobacco leaves and 
stems. You are almost sure to have the aphis, but 
it is easily controlled. The presence of the red 
spider means that the atmosphere is too dry. 
Remedy that by wetting down all the foliage, and 
then prevent further trouble from the same source 
by keeping open pans of water in the room to pro- 
vide moisture by evaporation. The spider will live 
only where it is very dry. 

If the soil in which the plants are first potted is 
of the right sort they will seldom need added fer- 
tilizer in the course of the winter. But if they make 
poor growth, or if the leaves are not a good healthy 
green, the needed plant food can best be added in 
the form of liquid manure. Get this by suspending 
a bag of cow manure in a tub of water overnight. 
The water will make a sufficiently rich dressing. Or 

309 



INDOOR WORK 

you may topdress by working into the surface of 
the soil a very little bonemeal. 

Avoid drafts and do not move the plants about. 
Plan your indoor layout with reference to the best 
available location for each variety, giving the ferns 
the shadier places, and then adhere to the plan. A 
plant is a creature of fixed habits and it resents be- 
ing moved from a spot where it is thriving merely to 
satisfy the whim of its owner. 

The better success you have this winter with the 
indoor venture the better gardener you will be next 
summer out in the big patch, for you will learn many 
things that you don't dream of now. There is more 
time to study the growth of things close at hand. 
Much less time is required for the drudgery of weed- 
ing and keeping things cleaned up. You don't have 
to stoop over to examine this or that peculiarity of 
a leaf or stem or blossom. You have no worry 
about too much or too little rain, for that is all 
regulated, just as you can fix the temperature by the 
simple device of covering the plants with news- 
papers at night or regulating the furnace damper 
to suit them. Note the habits of growth, where the 
new leaf or blossom comes with regard to the other 

SIO 



INDOOR WORK 

parts of the plant, and keep account of the time 
that each part of the development requires. 

Lessons for this window-garden laboratory need 
not be confined entirely to things that are grown to 
look at. Try a little forcing of some fruit or vege- 
table; perhaps not enough for a real meal, but just 
for a bite and for the satisfaction of proving that 
you can do it, A tomato vine is within the possi- 
bilities, and a head or two of lettuce can be grown 
in the shadier part of the window garden, near the 
ferns. If you have a section of the porch glassed in 
and some means of heating the enclosure you might 
produce a melon. 

Strawberry forcing is interesting winter work for 
the amateur. Take good plants from your own bed 
or get the right sort from the seedsman, telling him 
what you hope to accomplish. Put them into six- 
inch pots with a good rich mixture, one-third of 
which is old manure. In the beginning they should 
have a night temperature not higher than forty-five 
degrees and not much more than that by day. After 
the first fortnight the plants may have a higher 
temperature, and when they begin to blossom they 
may have about the same conditions as those best 

311 



INDOOR WORK 

adapted to the flowering of the geranium, with ample 
sunlight. 

Remember that many strawberry plants are pis- 
tillate — that is, without stamens and pollen and 
therefore incapable of producing fruit unless grown 
within fertilizing distance of bisexual plants. So 
be sure to get a variety that has complete flowers, 
with both the male and female parts. Even then it 
will be necessary to do the work of pollination arti- 
ficially, for there are no birds or insects and no wind 
in the house to assure the transportation of the pol- 
len from the stamens to the pistils. This can be 
done with the aid of a fine camel's-hair brush. 

This matter of pollination opens up all sorts of 
possibilities for the amateur in the way of cross 
breeding and producing new varieties. Try an ex- 
periment with carnations. They are about the 
easiest thing for the beginner to work with and the 
results come within a year after the experiment is 
made. 

Here is a simple problem off'ered just by way of 
illustration: Suppose you have some white carna- 
tions and some red ones. Bag the flowers that you 
select to work with or else move the plants far 

312 



INDOOR WORK 

enough apart so that there will be no danger of 
their cross breeding even in the house. Select the 
most perfect plants of the two colours that you have, 
taking into consideration height and stockiness of 
the stems, condition of the leaves and shape as well 
as size and colour of the blossoms. With keen, fine- 
pointed scissors cut off all the stamens of the white 
blossom, taking care not to jar off any of the pollen. 
Then brush the pollen from the stamens of the red 
flower on to a watch crystal and from that remove it 
with the camel's-hair brush to the pistil of the white 
flower. Now reverse the process with another pair 
of white and red flowers, transferring the pollen of 
the white to the red, after cutting out the stamens 
of the latter. Nature will do the rest of the work. 
Let the two flowers go to seed. Plant the seed, care- 
fully marking the two groups, and in eight or ten 
months you will have flowers on the new plants. 

RHUBARB AND MUSHROOMS. 

Rhubarb is the food plant most easily fooled into 
doing something out of season. In fact it is taken 
in by a trick of temperature so readily that it almost 
seems a shame to take advantage of its simplicity 

313 



INDOOR WORK 

and you ought to blush next January when you are 
eating pie made from your own fresh stalks. So, 
without advising or urging it, we shall simply tell 
how the shameful trick may be done. Just put the 
rhubarb down cellar and keep it dark and it will 
never know the difference, but will give you as juicy 
and palatable a crop this winter as you may ex- 
pect next spring from rhubarb which is treated 
fairly and allowed to stay out-of-doors and follow 
Nature's course. 

The only difference is that the deceived rhubarb 
will not have quite so much colour as that which 
leads a normal life out in the wind and sunshine. 

Dig up the rhubarb roots just before the ground 
freezes too hard for you to remove them without 
tearing, but expose those roots till they do freeze. 
Then put them down cellar in slightly moist earth 
and they will immediately begin to throw up shoots 
of pie plant. Just that overnight freezing, after the 
digging, has completely fooled the roots into think- 
ing that they have passed a long winter of rest and 
comfort in the open garden and that it must be time 
to resume work. Complete darkness in the cellar is 
necessary to keep up the delusion. If the basement 

314* 



INDOOR WORK 

is a light one simply put the roots, with the soil, in 
the bottoms of barrels and cover the barrels. Of 
course the temperature of the cellar must be about 
that of the open air in April and May. 

Speaking of cellars naturally suggests the matter 
of mushrooms. The mushroom resembles the hen's 
egg more than any other thing that grows in the 
earth, in that it is counted before it Is hatched, that 
the mere thought of growing it provokes optimistic 
dreams of sure and big and profitable crops. The 
home gardener who doubts his ability to grow pota- 
toes — even the amateur who is skeptical as to suc- 
cess with so simple a thing as a radish — takes it for 
granted that all he needs is a brick of spawn and a 
box of dirt in his cellar to get an abundance of mush- 
rooms. He multiplies a prospective yield by the 
highest price per pound in the market report and 
gets for his product a daily supply of mushrooms for 
the family plus a small fortune in the first winter. 

But mushroom beds do sometimes fail to produce 
anything. There are three main causes of failure 
— poor spawn, too much or too little moisture, and 
the wrong temperature. Avoid all these usual stum- 
bling blocks and follow instructions in the making of 

815 



INDOOR WORK 

the bed and the chances are fairly good that you will 
get mushrooms — say a pound to every square foot 
of your bed — between the time of your first gather- 
ing and the final exhaustion of the bed. Half a 
pound of mushrooms sauteed and served on toast 
makes a good meal for a family of three persons, so 
a bed four feet wide and ten feet long, or forty 
square feet, may be expected to be a real factor in 
the producing of wholesome, palatable food when an 
outdoor garden is frozen stiff. 

Mushrooms will grow in a temperature of from 
forty-five to sixty-five degrees. They will do their 
best between fifty and fifty-eight degrees. In mak- 
ing the bed you must depart from the familiar out- 
door rule to have well-rotted manure, and get fresh 
horse manure from the stable. If there is plenty of 
straw in it so much the better. Mix this manure with 
earth taken from under sod which is itself free from 
manure and therefore free from the spores of poi- 
sonous toadstools. The proportion should be about 
four-fifths manure to one-fifth soil. Mix the two 
thoroughly and fork the whole mass over three or 
four times a week for a month to prevent excessive 
heating or fermentation. During its preparation the 

316 



INDOOR WORK 

compost should be kept under sashes away from the 
rain. 

When the material has been thus prepared take 
it down cellar and make the bed by spreading suc- 
cessive layers of the compost over the entire area 
which the bed is to occupy. A layer of not more 
than two inches should be put on at a time, and 
beaten down with the back of a spade before the 
next is applied. The total depth should be about a 
foot. 

Careful account of the temperature of the new 
bed is to be kept from the outset by sticking the 
bulb of a thermometer down into the mass and leav- 
ing it where it can be read frequently. Within the 
first three or four days the heat from the closely 
packed manure should register a hundred degrees, 
possibly a little more. Then it will begin to decline, 
and when the thermometer registers eighty-five or 
ninety degrees it is time to put in the spawn. 

Undoubtedly you will get this spawn from your 
seedsman in the form of a brick. Break it up into 
two-inch pieces and force them down into the com- 
post about six inches apart each way and two or 
three inches below the surface. It is much easier 

317 



INDOOR WORK 

to use a stick or dibble for making the holes in which 
to plant them. Cover each piece and firm the com- 
post on top of it, leaving the surface of the whole 
bed as smooth as before planting. 

For the next eight or ten days Nature has to be 
left alone and a very interesting process goes on 
throughout the bed. This spawn, or mycelium, is a 
thread-like growth developed from mushroom sporesi 
or that powdery substance found on the gills under- 
neath the mushroom cap. It is made up into bricks 
with compost and kept cool and dry until sold for 
reproduction. As soon as the pieces of this brick 
are again brought under the influence of the growing 
conditions of the compost they begin to develop 
and spread, or " run the bed," as the saying is. 
This process requires nearly a fortnight. When it 
is completed you take a hand again in the operation 
and " case " the bed. This consists of covering it 
with an inch and a half of good clean loam that is 
barely moist. For casing avoid both heavy clay soil 
and one that is thin and sandy. It is worth while 
to screen the loam before putting it on, to get rid of 
all stones and rubbish that might interfere with the 
straight and easy upward growth of the mushrooms. 

318 



INDOOR WORK 

Up to this time very little if any watering has 
been needed. That of course must be left to in- 
dividual judgment. If the surface seems at any time 
to be too dry or dusty moisten it very slightly with a 
gentle spray. When the mushrooms begin to ap- 
pear the bed will require more water and should 
have a light sprinkling once or twice a week. But 
no mushroom bed should ever be heavily watered. 
Probably more mushrooms grown by amateurs are 
killed off by rot and black spot, due to excessive 
moisture, than by any other cause. The sprinkling 
should be done whenever necessary immediately after 
the pulling of the matured mushrooms. 

After the bed is in full bearing the mushrooms 
must be picked at least every other day — daily if 
there is a sufficient quantity for the day's use or if 
the bed is crowded. If they come up too thick it 
is well to pick even the buttons, as the small mush- 
rooms are called, before the edges of the cap break 
away from the ring that holds it to the stem and 
spread out. Of course, the buttons are edible ; some 
persons prefer them to the full-grown article. A 
mushroom gains practically nothing in weight after 
the cap breaks from the ring. 

319 



INDOOR WORK 

A perfectly good bed may be ruined or materially 
impaired for further productiveness by careless gath- 
ering. Each mushroom must be taken by the cap 
and stem and gently twisted until it comes out with 
the least possible disturbance of the soil. Other- 
wise some of the mycelium from which more mush- 
rooms are to come will be torn and destroyed. Fill 
all holes left after gathering. 

The life of a bed is very uncertain. It may last 
anywhere from five weeks to three months. When it 
ceases to produce that is the end of it so far as 
mushrooms are concerned, and it will be a waste of 
time to try and renew it with another brick of spawn. 
The compost itself is exhausted and must be cleaned 
out entirely to get rid of any insects or fungi that 
might injure a new bed made in the same place. 

The soil and manure of the discarded bed will 
make excellent fertilizer for the vegetable or flower 
garden in the spring. 

Insect pests in the mushroom bed are not serious. 
They may be easily eliminated by putting arsenic 
or Paris green on bits of potato or cabbage leaves 
and leaving the poisoned bait beside the bed. 

There are various other things you may do in 
3S0 



INDOOR WORK 

your cellar in the course of the wanter if you are 
sufficiently forehanded to provide yourself with a 
good working supply of loam under cover before the 
ground gets too full of frost. For example you may 
start early lettuce and tomato plants if there is a 
window in the cellar wall high enough to afford a 
supply of sunlight that will supplement the heat 
from the furnace. 

Seeds will start in boxes near the furnace or 0*1 
top of it, if it is encased with brick, without the in- 
fluence of the sunlight, but they will be yellow, spin- 
dling, worthless things. If the window is there start 
these plants by all means, and then transfer them 
to a hotbed outdoors in early spring. 

If there is any room in that cellar after making 
the mushroom bed, hiding the rhubarb roots, and 
storing the winter supply of summer-grown crops, 
be sure to have a work bench. Every gardener 
should be also a carpenter. There are many things 
necessary in the garden that add a great deal to the 
cost of it when bought at the stores, but which 
can be made for little or nothing if you will pro- 
vide yourself with a serviceable bench, a box of good 
tools, and a little lumber. Trellises can be made 

321 



INDOOR WORK 

ready for the tomato plants, label stakes can be 
fashioned out of old shingles, tools can be repaired. 

All the side boarding and the uprights for hot- 
beds and cold frames can be cut and fitted in the cel- 
lar workshop, and the chances are that they will be 
much better made in a leisurely winter than if left 
until the time they are needed. Work out some 
simple irrigation system for the garden and make 
as many feet of V-shape wooden trough as you will 
need to distribute water, without having to do a lot 
of carpentering work next summer when the dry spell 
comes and you need all your spare time to weed and 
cultivate. 

Make a lot of tent-shaped covers, open at the bot- 
tom, with the two ends and back of wood and the 
front of a single pane of window glass. These de- 
vices will enable you to have melons long before your 
neighbours by making early planting possible. Put 
one of these covers over a newly planted hill with 
the glass side toward the sun, and the soil where 
the seed is will be much warmer than the surround- 
ing ground. These forcing devices can be kept over 
the plants until danger of cold is past; then the 
melon vines will have a flying start of two weeks. 

32S 



CHAPTER XXX 



SUGGESTIONS FOR THE GARDEN 
CALENDAR 

JANUARY. 

Watch the thermometer in the hotbed. If it runs 
low bank up the bed with fresh manure. 

Now is the time to cut scions from your favourite 
apple trees for grafting on the old trees of poor va- 
rieties. In a couple of seasons you can change the 
old to the new. 

Watch for bare spots on the lawn during severe 
weather. Cover with snow or straw to protect the 
sod. 

Trim the old canes of the raspberries and black- 
berries, leaving enough new growth to hold up the 
bushes. Cut out about half of the tops of the 
gooseberry and currant bushes, saving the new wood. 

Sow in the hotbed or flats early cabbage and cauli- 
flower, celery of the self-blanching type, onion seed 

32S 



GARDEN CALENDAR 

of the large globe sorts. Late in March these may 
be removed to the cold frames to harden off. 

Sow lettuce, radish, beets, and put in onion sets 
in the hotbed for early table supply. Keep the hot- 
bed filled by planting new crops when any of the 
earlier lettuce or radishes are pulled. 

Grafts on cherry and plum may be made now. 
Use the liquid grafting wax in cold weather. 

FEBRUARY. 

If the season is mild uncover bulb beds and hardy 
border plants in sections in the latitude of Indian- 
apolis and southward. In more northerly regions 
wait until March 15th. 

When the soil thaws put in a trench of rich manure 
a foot deep, with six inches of rich loam over it, and 
plant the sweet peas in this loam. 

Well-rotted stable manure may now be applied over 
the garden plat to soak in as the ground thaws. 

Don't add lime now, but save that until after the 
ground is ploughed or spaded. Lime should not be 
added with stable manure. 

Examine all of your fruit trees closely for scale. 
If you find the tell-tale circles about the size of a 



GARDEN CALENDAR 

pin head prepare to fight the San Jose scale. Whale- 
oil soap will kill it and a pound in two gallons of 
water and a scrub brush are all you need to do the 
cleaning. 

Finish pruning the grapes and brambles. 

« 

MARCH. 

The last chance to prune is during the first mild 
days. To delay is to rob the trees of the strength 
used in forcing out leaves on the useless limbs. 

Uncover the bulb beds, mulch the surface with fine- 
cut litter or sand if the soil is full of clay. 

Spray trees, shrubs and rose bushes for scale in- 
sects. 

Clean off the strawberry beds. Transplant hardy 
vegetables, such as cabbage and cauliflower. Put 
out onion sets and early peas and radishes and beets 
in the open ground. 

Put out the dahlias and gladioli in borders and 
beds in protected places where the sun strikes. 

Dig the trenches and put in the sweet peas six to 
eight inches deep with plenty of well-rotted manure. 

Watch the hotbeds and cold-frames especially at 
this time. Sudden rains, hail, changes of tempera- 



GARDEN CALENDAR 

ture, frost and alternating clouds and sunshine may do 
great damage within a short while. Hence one must 
not forget to adopt the frame to meet these changes. 

The best protection against hail is to cover the 
glass with a straw mattress or a couple of layers of 
old carpet. 

Finish your early spraying before the trees have 
pushed their buds so far as to be injured by strong 
mixtures. 

APRIL. 

There is no more planting to be done this season 
under glass or indoors, except perhaps a supple- 
mentary planting of tomato seed. Thin out pep- 
pers, eggplants and tomatoes in cold-frame. 

Get potato seed cut and ready to go into ground. 
This is not too early to plant them. 

Plant beets and parsnips and put out the onion sets. 

Cut brush or prepare a stout trellis of twine for 
the pea vines to cling to. Do not use wire. 

B^ ready for the blossom-time spraying of the 
peach trees with arsenate of lead. Apply when 
the petals begin to drop, to catch the curculio. 

Sow good grass seed on the bare patches in the 
lawn. There are varieties of seed specially adapted 

3^6 



GARDEN CALENDAR 

to different purposes — that is, for shady places, 
damp places and dry spots. Get the right kind. 

Begin the watering of the sweet-pea bed, first dis- 
solving an ounce of nitrate of soda in a gallon of 
water. Plant lettuce, carrots, spinach, early cab- 
bage and early cauliflower seed. 

MAY. 

Make the first planting of string beans and start 
a new row of peas to follow those which should be 
well along by this time. 

Experiment with companion cropping as a means 
of getting the maximum food product from the gar- 
den by intensive methods. One good combination in- 
cludes lettuce, cabbage and radish. 

Early turnips can go in now. 

Make the first planting of six-week bush beans. 

Get the poles set for the limas. A foot and a half 
in the ground is none too deep to make them secure 
against winds. Also save time by forking manure 
into the hills where the limas are to be placed. 

Keep a garden diai*y. Careful noting of what is 
happening iii your garden from day to day this sea- 
son will be of great help to you next year as a guide 
and basis of comparison. 



GARDEN CALENDAR 

It is thinning-out time for the vegetables that were 
planted early. 

Put a very light dressing of nitrate beside the 
lettuce plants and rake it in. This will force leaf 
growth and help the heading up. 

Start another row of peas for the succession. 

Plant melon and summer-squash seed. 

Use the hoe every day to keep out the weeds and 
keep in the moisture. From now on rain is a doubt- 
ful quantity. 

JUNE. 

This is the time to start the herbs, either as bor- 
ders or in a patch by themselves. I 

There is still ample time for another planting in 
the succession of peas to give them a start before 
wilting hot weather begins. 

Spring rains have been as beneficial to the weeds 
as to your vegetables. Use the hoe. 

Spray for plant lice. 

Plant cucumbers in richly manured hills of sandy 
loam. 

Thin out the beets, carrots and lettuce, and give 
all the remaining plants in the rows a thorough cul- 
tivation. 

328 



GARDEN CALENDAR 

Do a little hand work in pulling out those spears of 
grass and young weeds that are getting ready to 
choke the new com. 

Plant more six-week beans for the next instalment 
of the all-summer succession. 

Set in the open ground the hot-weather plants — 
tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. 

For the next two months mow the lawn once a week 
unless there is a drought. If the ground is poor 
the cuttings left on the lawn will help to enrich it. If 
the turf is good the cuttings will be appreciated in 
the poultry yard or they may be used as a mulch 
in the berry patch to keep the fruit clean. 

Tie the young tomato plants to the stakes now. 
The less swaying they do in the wind the better for 
them. 

First peas are about ready to pick through the 
central part of the country. Get rid of the vines as 
fast as they are through to make room for other vege- 
tables. The gardener in Maine expects to have his 
first peas with salmon on July 4. 

Spray the melon vines for blight. 



sm 



GARDEN CALENDAR 

JULY. 

Start another row of sweet corn ; also more beans, 
peas and lettuce. 

Mulch the small fruits and thin the fruit on trees 
if there is too much left for the best results after 
the natural dropping of June is over. 

Dig some wood ashes into the soil round the squash 
and melon vines. This will furnish an extra supply 
of potash, very useful just now in making fruit. 
Pinch back the ends of the vines. 

Don't let any weeds go to seed. It would mean 
more work than necessary next year. 

Plant seed for late lettuce and spinach. 

Go bug hunting every morning in both the flower 
and vegetable gardens. 

This is the season for pruning many of the flower- 
ing shrubs. 

AUGUST. 

Examine the roses carefully and cut out all old 
wood — the wood that has just finished flowering. 

After thinning and pruning roses, a good applica- 
tion of liquid manure or powdered sheep manure will 
help them greatly. 



GARDEN CALENDAR 

If the chrysanthemums have not already been 
staked no time should be lost in doing this. A stake 
to each shoot, loosely tied, will insure big blooms and 
avoid loss from wind storms. 

Get evergreens from the nurseryman for the per- 
manent planting about the grounds. August is the 
month for setting them out. 

Cultivate the home orchard once and then sow a 
cover crop of clover. 

Make the new strawberry plantati'on f/om the 
potted layers. 

If the onion tops begin to droop that is the sign 
to take in the harvest. 

Hoe the celery for the last cultivation prelim- 
inary to banking up. 

SEPTEMBER. 

Get your planks ready for the blanching of the 
celery. 

Thin out the dead wood on the fruit bushes. 

There is still time for starting the new straw- 
berry patch from the plants produced by the run- 
ners of the old one. 

Sow turnips, beets and carrots and get ready for 
planting the spinach. 

331 



GARDEN CALENDAR 

Gain a year by renovating your lawn this fall. 

Cheesecloth covered frames over late crops will 
lengthen the growing season. 

Seed a permanent pasture if you have a patch on 
which you can keep a cow. 

Cut out all old wood of the blackberry and rasp- 
berry vines. Leave about four new canes to each 
plant. 

Root the cuttings from the geraniums and other 
bedding plants to get a new supply for next year. 

Pinch back the chrysanthemums. 

OCTOBER. 

The onion crop should all be harvested, dried and 
stored by this time. The winter's potato supply 
should be in the cellar. 

Plant lettuce under glass. 

Before moving the tender flowering plants back 
to winter shelter see that they are free from insects. 

New beds of rhubarb and asparagus can be started 
now. 

Finish the banking up of celery and endive. 

Rake up the leaves for a mulch wherever needed 
in the garden. 

SS2 



GARDEN CALENDAR 

Cover the strawberry vines. 

October is the month for planting the fall bulbs. 
It is also the month for digging, drying and storing 
the bulbs to be planted in spring. 
. Clean up and burn all garden clutter and diseased 
plants. 

Burn asparagus tops and manure the bed. 

Spread well-rotted manure over the lawn. 

Start parsley in the kitchen window garden. 



83S 



INDEX 



Apples, diseases, 139. 

fertilizer, 140. 

pruning, 134, 136. 

soil, 131. 

spacing trees, 133. 

sprajing, 138. 
Alfalfa, 230. 
Asparagus, cutting, 102. 

enemies, 103. 

fertilizer, 101, 230. 

ideal soil, 96. 

making bed, 98, 

year-old roots, 96. 
Asters, 299. 

Barberry, 264. 

Beans, culture rules, 84. 

fertilizer, 159. 

soil, 159. 

succession, 160. 
Beets, culture rules, 82. 

fertilizer, 216. 

soil, 216. 
Begonia, 294. 
Blackberry, fertilizer, 125. 

spacing bushes, 120. 
Brussels sprouts, 82. 
Bulbs, 293. 

Cabbage, culture rules, 82. 

fertilizer, 150. 

pests, 149. 

soil, 149. 
Canna, 294. 
Canning, 189. 



Canterbury Bells, 299. 
Carrots, culture rules, 83. 

fertilizer, 217. 

soil, 216. 
Cauliflower, 83, 150. 
Celery, cultivation, 108. 

blanching, 108. 

enemies. 111. 

fertilizer, 105. 

soil, 103. 

spraying, 111. 

storing, 279. 

transplanting, 107. 
Cherries, 140. 
Chili Sauce, 236. 
Chrysanthemum, 299. 
Clovers, 230. 

Companion cropping, 147. 
Corn, best soil, 154. 

cross breeding, 154. 

culture rule, 85. 

fertilizer, 153. 

saving seed, 155. 

tillage, 158. 
Crocuses, 295. 
Cucumbers, 85, 168, 169. 
Currants, 121, 124. 



Daffodils, 295. 
Dahlias, 294. 
Dewberries, 119. 
Diseases, 38. 
Dogwood, 259, 264. 
Drainage, 39. 



335 



INDEX 



Dwarf fruit trees, apples, 
peaches, 129. 
pears, 128. 

Early and Late, 222, 
Earliana tomatoes, 177. 
Egg plant, 5, 85, 178. 
Endive, 83, 223. 

Fertilizer best adapted 
apples, 140. 
asparagus, 101, 230. 
beans, 159. 
beets, 216. 
blackberries, 125. 
cabbage, 150. 
carrot, 217. 
cauliflower, 150. 
celery, 105. 
cherries, 140. 
corn, 153. 
cucumber, 168. 
currants, 124. 
egg plant, 178. 
endive, 225. 
gooseberries, 124. 
grapes, 292. 
lawn grass, 252. 
lettuce, 144, 145. 
melons, 164, 167. 
onions, 113. 
peaches, 140. 
peanuts, 187. 
pears, 140. 
peppers, 178. 
plums, 140. 
potatoes, 187, 215. 
pumpkins, 188. 
quince, 140. 
raspberry, 125. 
rutabaga, 216. 
shrubs, 265. 
spinach, 228. 
squash, 188. 



128. Fertilizer — Continued 
strawberries, 87, 88. 
sweet potato, 183. 
tomato, 173, 176. 
turnip, 216. 

Forsythia, 264. 

Garden, calendar, 323-333. 
for: carpentering, 321. 

diary, 78. 

economy of, 12. 

eugenics, 38. 

fertilizing, 24. 

flower garden, 199-209. 

fruit garden, 115-125. 

mistakes, 69, 70. 

of the winter vision, 1. 

permanent improvement, 
229. 

planning, 4. 

reading, 7. 

soil, 19. 

time chart, 86. 

tools, 28-37. 
Gladiolia, 294. 
Golden glow, 203. 
Gooseberries, 121, 123, 124, 
Gourds, 181. 
Grapes, arbour, 283. 

cultivation, 287. 

cuttings, 286, 287, 283. 

fertilizer, 292. 

grafting, 290. 

layering, 286, 289. 

pests, 285. 

preserving, 240. 

pruning, 284. 

Hawthorn, 264. 
Hedges, 262. 
Hollyhocks, 206. 
Honeysuckle, 264. 
Humus, 19. 

336 



INDEX 



Hyacinths, 295. 

Iris, 201. 
Irrigation, 53. 

Jonquils, 295. 

Kohl-Rabi, 83. 

Laurus Benzoin, 264. 
Lawn, area, 256. 

contour, 248, 256. 

fertilizing, 252. 

making, 246. 

paths, 255. 

regrading, 255. 

rolling, 254. 

seed for, 247, 253. 

shade of, 247. 

soil, 249, 250. 

terrace, 247. 
Leek, 83. 
Lettuce, best soil, 145. 

best variety, 144. 

companion cropping, 147. 

cultivation, 146. 

fertilizer, 144, 145. 

heading up, 143. 

quickened growth, 145. 

seed bed, 145. 

thinning out, 145. 
Lime, 22, 233. 
Loam, 19. 
Loquat, 141. 

Manure, cow, 201. 

hen, 153. 

horse, 201. 

liquid, 201, 230. 

sheep, 202. 
Melons, blight, 168. 

different types, 166. 

fertilizer, 164, 167. 

pinching back, 164. 



Melons — Continued 

planting time, 85. 

soil requirements, 163. 

tillage, 164. 

under glass, 161. 
Montbretia, 294. 
Mushrooms, 315. 

Narcissi, 295. 

Onions, culture rules, 83. 
fertilizer, 113. 
seed, 113. 
sets, 113. 
soil, 112. 
storing, 276. 

Parsley, 169. 

Parsnip, 83. 

Pa^vpaw, 141. 

Peaches, 133, 134, 137, 140. 

Peanuts, 184. 

Pears, 128, 130, 140. 

Peas, 83. 

Peony, 299. 

Peppers, 85, 178. 

Persimmons, 141. 

Phlox, 202, 299. . 

Pickling, 236. 

Planting directions, 82-85. 

Plums, 140. 

Pollination, 311. 

Pomegranate, 141. 

Potatoes, 16, 17, 84, 187, 213, 

215, 278. 
Preserving, 236. 
Privet, 208. 

Pruning, 121, 133, 208. 
Pumpkins, 85, 188. 

Quinces, 140. 

Radish, 1, 84. 

Raspberries, 121, 123, 124, 
125. 



^37 



INDEX 



Rhubarb, 313. 
Roses, 202. 
Rose of Sharon, 301. 
Rutabaga, 216. 

Salsify, 84. 

San Jose Scale, 138. 

Shrubs, 263. 

Spinach, 84, 227, 238. 

Spiraea, 264. 

Spraying mixtures, 138. 



Squash, 85, 188. 

Sweet potato, 183, 275. 

Syringa, 302. 

Storing vegetables, 274. 

Strawberries, 87-94. 



Tomatoes, 85, 171-177. 
Tools, 28. 
TuUps, 296. 
rurnip«, 84, 210, 












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